Alkalinity, the excess of proton acceptors over donors, plays a major role in ocean chemistry, in buffering and in calcium carbonate precipitation and dissolution. Understanding alkalinity dynamics is pivotal to quantify ocean carbon dioxide uptake during times of global change. Here we review ocean alkalinity and its role in ocean buffering as well as the biogeochemical processes governing alkalinity

Hydraulic fracturing (HF) is a technique that is used for extracting petroleum resources from impermeable host rocks. In this process, fluid injected under high pressure causes fractures to propagate. This technique has been transformative for the hydrocarbon industry, unlocking otherwise stranded resources; however, environmental concerns make HF controversial. One concern is HF‐induced seismicity

We assess evidence relevant to Earth's equilibrium climate sensitivity per doubling of atmospheric CO2, characterized by an effective sensitivity S . This evidence includes feedback process understanding, the historical climate record, and the paleoclimate record. An S value lower than 2 K is difficult to reconcile with any of the three lines of evidence. The amount of cooling during the Last Glacial

Jets and plumes have been the focus of quantitative investigations since the mid‐1950s. These investigations intensified following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in which thousands of tons of oil and natural gas were released into the Gulf of Mexico. This review focuses on plume dynamics that apply to both single‐phase and multiphase liquid‐in‐liquid and liquid plus gas into liquid plumes, including

No abstract is available for this article.

Spaceborne radars offer a unique three‐dimensional view of the atmospheric components of the Earth's hydrological cycle. Existing and planned spaceborne radar missions provide cloud and precipitation information over the oceans and land difficult to access in remote areas. A careful look into their measurement capabilities indicates considerable gaps that hinder our ability to detect and probe key

Human activity has led to increased atmospheric concentrations of many gases, including halocarbons, and may lead to emissions of many more gases. Many of these gases are, on a per molecule basis, powerful greenhouse gases, although at present‐day concentrations their climate effect is in the so‐called weak limit (i.e. their effect scales linearly with concentration). We published a comprehensive review

Studies of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO) have progressed considerably during the past decades in observations, numerical modeling, and theoretical understanding. Many theoretical attempts have been made to identify the most essential processes responsible for the existence of the MJO. Criteria are proposed to separate a hypothesis from a theory (based on the first principles with quantitative

No abstract is available for this article.

One of the most intriguing facets of the climate system is that it exhibits variability across all temporal and spatial scales; pronounced examples are temperature and precipitation. The structure of this variability, however, is not arbitrary. Over certain spatial and temporal ranges, it can be described by scaling relationships in the form of power laws in probability density distributions and autocorrelation

Global sea level provides an important indicator of the state of the warming climate, but changes in regional sea level are most relevant for coastal communities around the world. With improvements to the sea‐level observing system, the knowledge of regional sea‐level change has advanced dramatically in recent years. Satellite measurements coupled with in situ observations have allowed for comprehensive

Seismic hazard modeling is a multidisciplinary science that aims to forecast earthquake occurrence and its resultant ground shaking. Such models consist of a probabilistic framework that quantifies uncertainty across a complex system; typically, this includes at least two model components developed from Earth science: seismic source and ground motion models. Although there is no scientific prescription

Dry deposition of ozone is an important sink of ozone in near surface air. When dry deposition occurs through plant stomata, ozone can injure the plant, altering water and carbon cycling and reducing crop yields. Quantifying both stomatal and nonstomatal uptake accurately is relevant for understanding ozone's impact on human health as an air pollutant and on climate as a potent short‐lived greenhouse

Source locations provide fundamental information on earthquakes, and lay the foundation for seismic monitoring at all scales. Seismic source location as a classical inverse problem has experienced significant methodological progress during the past century. Unlike the conventional traveltime‐based location methods which mainly utilize kinematic information, a new category of waveform‐based methods

The atmospheric methane burden is increasing rapidly, contrary to pathways compatible with the goals of the 2015 UNFCCC Paris Agreement. Urgent action is required to bring methane back to a pathway more in line with the Paris goals. Emission reduction from ‘tractable’ (easier to mitigate) anthropogenic sources such as the fossil fuel industries and landfills is being much facilitated by technical advances

Predicting the morphodynamics of sedimentary landscapes due to fluvial and aeolian flows requires answering the following questions: is the flow strong enough to initiate sediment transport, is the flow strong enough to sustain sediment transport once initiated, and how much sediment is transported by the flow in the saturated state (i.e., what is the transport capacity)? In the geomorphological and

Material transport in the ocean mixed layer (OML) is an important component of natural processes such as gas and nutrient exchanges. It is also important in the context of pollution (oil droplets, microplastics, etc.). Observational studies of small‐scale three‐dimensional turbulence in the OML are difficult, especially if one aims at a systematic coverage of relevant parameters and their effects,

Paleomagnetic records from sediments, archeological artifacts, and lava flows provide the foundation for studying geomagnetic field changes over 0–100 ka. Late Quaternary time‐varying spherical harmonic models for 0–100 ka produce a global view used to evaluate new data records, study the paleomagnetic secular variation on centennial to multimillennial timescales, and investigate extreme regional or

Natural hazards (NH), such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and severe tropospheric weather events, generate acoustic and gravity waves that propagate upward and cause perturbations in the atmosphere and ionosphere. The first NH‐related ionospheric disturbances were detected after the great 1964 Alaskan earthquake by ionosondes and Doppler sounders. Since then, many other observations

Scientists and engineers have observed for some time that tidal amplitudes at many locations are shifting considerably due to non‐astronomical factors. Here we review comprehensively these important changes in tidal properties, many of which remain poorly understood. Over long geological time‐scales, tectonic processes drive variations in basin size, depth, and shape, and hence the resonant properties

X‐ray microdensitometry on annually resolved tree‐ring samples has gained an exceptional position in last‐millennium paleoclimatology through the maximum latewood density (MXD) parameter, but also increasingly through other density parameters. For 50 years, X‐ray based measurement techniques have been the de facto standard. However, studies report offsets in the mean levels for MXD measurements derived

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a key mechanism of heat, freshwater, and carbon redistribution in the climate system. The precept that the AMOC has changed abruptly in the past, notably during and at the end of the last ice age, and that it is ‘very likely’ to weaken in the coming century due to anthropogenic climate change is a key motivation for sustained observations of

The processes leading to the development of hail and the distribution of these events worldwide are reviewed. Microphysical and physical characteristics of hail development are described to provide context of the notable gaps in our understanding of what drives hail to grow large, or what determines how it falls to the ground. Distributional characteristics of hail are explored, utilizing both surface

Until recently, little was known about the Weddell Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In the last 10 years, a variety of expeditions and numerical modelling experiments have improved knowledge of its glaciology, glacial geology and tectonic setting. Two of the sector's largest ice streams rest on a steep reverse‐sloping bed yet, despite being vulnerable to change, satellite observations show

Aerosols interact with radiation and clouds. Substantial progress made over the past 40 years in observing, understanding, and modeling these processes helped quantify the imbalance in the Earth's radiation budget caused by anthropogenic aerosols, called aerosol radiative forcing, but uncertainties remain large. This review provides a new range of aerosol radiative forcing over the industrial era based

Observations taken over the last few decades indicate that dramatic changes are occurring in the Arctic‐Boreal Zone (ABZ), which are having significant impacts on ABZ inhabitants, infrastructure, flora and fauna, and economies. While suitable for detecting overall change, the current capability is inadequate for systematic monitoring and for improving process‐based and large‐scale understanding of

No abstract is available for this article.

Natural gas hydrate is ice‐like mixture of gas (mostly methane) and water that is widely found in sediments along the world's continental margins and within and beneath permafrost and glaciers in a near‐surface depth interval where the pressure is sufficiently high and temperature sufficiently low for gas hydrate to be stable. We categorize the myriad of geological gas hydrate deposits into five characteristic

The Sun is powered by a very stable source of fusion energy in its core that radiates that energy outward in a constant flow. Yet it has a cycle of magnetic dynamo activity whose strength and duration are variable. This variability, which affects the Earth's “space climate,” points to temporal changes in the convective and diffusive transport of magnetic flux above the tachocline, where the flux is

Fracture pattern development has been a challenging area of research in the Earth sciences for more than 100 years. Much has been learned about the spatial and temporal complexity inherent to these systems, but severe challenges remain. Future advances will require new approaches. Chemical processes play a larger role in opening‐mode fracture pattern development than has hitherto been appreciated.

Over the 40‐year satellite record, there has been a slight increasing trend in total annual mean Antarctic sea ice extent of approximately 1.5% per decade that is made up of the sum of significantly larger opposing regional trends. However, record increases in total Antarctic sea ice extent were observed during 2012–2014, followed by record lows (for the satellite era) through 2018. There is still

Invasive nonnative species acting as “ecosystem engineers” or “geomorphic agents” can represent a major landscape disturbance. Quantification of their biogeomorphic impacts remains a key knowledge gap, and aquatic‐terrestrial transition zones may be particularly exposed to impacts. We demonstrate how burrowing invasive species represent a potentially significant but unquantified erosion risk at aquatic

Luminescence holds unique potential as a sediment tracer and provenance method. The tracer application of luminescence has key advantages including ease of measurement, relatively low cost, and applicability to geologically ubiquitous quartz and feldspar sand and silt. These advantages can help answer fundamental questions about geomorphology, sediment transport, sediment production, and the tectonic/climatic

A grand challenge for ocean chemists in the years ahead lies in the need to tackle the chemical consequences of ocean warming with the same rigor and intensity that has been brought to bear on the physical chemistry of ocean acidification. For over 50 years ocean chemistry has been dominated by the study of pH‐dependent processes, but to address the biogeochemical impacts of ocean warming, we will

Groundwater 18O/16O, 2H/1H, 13C/12C, 3H, and 14C data can help quantify molecular movements and chemical reactions governing groundwater recharge, quality, storage, flow, and discharge. Here, commonly applied approaches to isotopic data analysis are reviewed, involving groundwater recharge seasonality, recharge elevations, groundwater ages, paleoclimate conditions, and groundwater discharge. Reviewed

The time that water takes to travel through the terrestrial hydrological cycle and the critical zone is of great interest in Earth system sciences with broad implications for water quality and quantity. Most water age studies to date have focused on individual compartments (or subdisciplines) of the hydrological cycle such as the unsaturated or saturated zone, vegetation, atmosphere, or rivers. However

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) can be released from soils to the atmosphere through microbial decomposition of plant residues or soil organic carbon, root emission, evaporation of litter‐stored BVOCs, and other physical processes. Soils can also act as a sink of BVOCs through biotic and abiotic uptake. Currently, the source and sink capabilities of soils have not been explicitly accounted

No abstract is available for this article.

Leaf area index (LAI) is a critical vegetation structural variable and is essential in the feedback of vegetation to the climate system. The advancement of the global Earth Observation has enabled the development of global LAI products and boosted global Earth system modeling studies. This overview provides a comprehensive analysis of LAI field measurements and remote sensing estimation methods, the

It has long been speculated that biological evolution was influenced by ultraviolet radiation (UVR) reaching the Earth's surface, despite imprecise knowledge of the timing of both UVR flux and evolutionary events. The past strength of Earth's dipole field provides a proxy for UVR flux because of its role in maintaining stratospheric ozone. The timing of Quaternary evolutionary events has become better

The Weddell Gyre (WG) is one of the main oceanographic features of the Southern Ocean south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which plays an influential role in global ocean circulation as well as gas exchange with the atmosphere. We review the state‐of‐the art knowledge concerning the WG from an interdisciplinary perspective, uncovering critical aspects needed to understand this system's role in

Soil moisture (SM) is a key hydrologic state variable that is of significant importance for numerous Earth and environmental science applications that directly impact the global environment and human society. Potential applications include, but are not limited to, forecasting of weather and climate variability; prediction and monitoring of drought conditions; management and allocation of water resources;

We present a new synthesis of oceanic crustal structure from two‐dimensional seismic profiles to explore differences related to spreading rate and age. Primary results are as follows: (1) Layer 2 has an average thickness of 1.84 km but is thicker for young slow‐spreading crust and thinner for young superfast‐spreading crust. At faster‐spreading rates the layer 2/3 boundary likely corresponds to the

Large earthquakes initiate chains of surface processes that last much longer than the brief moments of strong shaking. Most moderate‐ and large‐magnitude earthquakes trigger landslides, ranging from small failures in the soil cover to massive, devastating rock avalanches. Some landslides dam rivers and impound lakes, which can collapse days to centuries later, and flood mountain valleys for hundreds

Surface mass balance (SMB) provides mass input to the surface of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets and therefore comprises an important control on ice sheet mass balance and resulting contribution to global sea level change. As ice sheet SMB varies highly across multiple scales of space (meters to hundreds of kilometers) and time (hourly to decadal), it is notoriously challenging to observe and

By synthesizing recent studies employing a wide range of approaches (modern observations, paleo reconstructions, and climate model simulations), this paper provides a comprehensive review of the linkage between multidecadal Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) variability and Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV) and associated climate impacts. There is strong observational and modeling

Groundwater extraction is increasing rapidly in many areas of the world, causing serious impacts such as falling water tables, ground surface subsidence, water quality degradation, and reduction of stream baseflow on which many ecosystems depend. Methods for understanding and predicting the impacts of groundwater extraction generally lack detailed spatial and temporal knowledge of the subsurface hydrogeomechanical

In this review, we highlight the complementary relationship between simple and comprehensive models in addressing key scientific questions to describe Earth's atmospheric circulation. The systematic representation of models in steps, or hierarchies, connects our understanding from idealized systems to comprehensive models and ultimately the observed atmosphere. We define three interconnected principles

Atmospheric aerosols are complex mixtures of different chemical species, and individual particles exist in many different shapes and morphologies. Together, these characteristics contribute to the aerosol mixing state. This review provides an overview of measurement techniques to probe aerosol mixing state, discusses how aerosol mixing state is represented in atmospheric models at different scales

No abstract is available for this article.

Traditionally, groundwater and surface water flow models have been calibrated against two observation types: hydraulic heads and surface water discharge. It has repeatedly been demonstrated, however, that these classical observations do not contain sufficient information to calibrate flow models. To reduce the predictive uncertainty of flow models, the consideration of other observation types constitutes

On behalf of the authors and readers of Reviews of Geophysics, the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and the broader scientific community, the Editors wish to wholeheartedly thank those who reviewed the manuscripts for Reviews of Geophysics in 2018. Reviews of Geophysics is the top rated journal in Geophysics and Geochemistry and it could not exist without your investment of time and effort, lending

Geophysical monitoring of landslides can provide insights into spatial and temporal variations of subsurface properties associated with slope failure. Recent improvements in equipment, data analysis, and field operations have led to a significant increase in the use of such techniques in monitoring. Geophysical methods complement intrusive approaches, which sample only a very small proportion of the

The ionospheric response to explosions which occur at or below the Earth's surface has been noted since the first detonations of nuclear devices during the early period of aboveground testing. Acoustic gravity waves and traveling ionospheric disturbances were detected in association with test explosions carried out by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Novaya Zemlya in 1961. While research

No abstract is available for this article.

Slope streaks are prevalent and intriguing dark albedo surface features on contemporary Mars. Slope streaks are readily observed in the equatorial and subequatorial dusty regolith regions with low thermal inertia. They gradually fade over decadal timescales. The proposed mechanisms for their formation vary widely based on several physicochemical and geomorphological explanations. The scientific community

El Niño and La Niña events in the tropical Pacific have significant and disrupting impacts on the global atmospheric and oceanic circulation. El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) impacts also extend above the troposphere, affecting the strength and variability of the stratospheric polar vortex in the high latitudes of both hemispheres, as well as the composition and circulation of the tropical stratosphere

The Antarctic Slope Current (ASC) is a coherent circulation feature that rings the Antarctic continental shelf and regulates the flow of water toward the Antarctic coastline. The structure and variability of the ASC influences key processes near the Antarctic coastline that have global implications, such as the melting of Antarctic ice shelves and water mass formation that determines the strength of

Data are essential in all areas of geophysics. They are used to better understand and manage systems, either directly or via models. Given the complexity and spatiotemporal variability of geophysical systems (e.g., precipitation), a lack of sufficient data is a perennial problem, which is exacerbated by various drivers, such as climate change and urbanization. In recent years, crowdsourcing has become

The growing interest in the maintenance of favorable soil structure is largely motivated by its central role in plant growth, soil ecological functioning, and impacts on surface water and energy fluxes. Soil structure pertains to the spatial arrangement of voids and solid constituents, their aggregation, and mechanical state. As a fragile product of soil biological activity that includes invisible