In an article published in Science China Earth Sciences, two senior scientists at China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and University of Science and Technology of China present comprehensive arguments for the past and present of intracontinental orogens, developing a holistic model of mountain building from intracontinental reworking of fossil plate margins. The intracontinental orogeny involves dual dynamic mechanisms via either far-field compressional stress transmission from remote plate margins or near-field extensional stress focus from local plate bottom. This provides new insights into the formation and evolution of continental tectonics with respect to inheritance and development in both structure and composition from preceding plate margins.

A recent study published in National Science Review revealed detailed crustal structures of the Eastern Himalayas, showing a local stress field of dominantly north-south horizontal compression, low-angle subduction of the crust-mantle boundary and flat-ramp geometry of the Indian plate beneath the Eurasian plate. These results have important implications for understanding the regional tectonics, the broad uplift of the mountains and  generation of thrust and strike-slip earthquakes in this continental collision zone.

A death toll of more than 1,100 is expected to rise significantly after a rare convergence of heavy rains and multiple cyclones that devastated multiple countries in south and southeast Asia. Cyclones — rotating storms with high winds in the Pacific Ocean — don’t normally manifest near the Earth’s equator, but last week’s extreme weather saw three such storms form in the area. As the frequency and intensity of cyclones ramp up, a team of researchers is calling for better forecasting with the development of intelligent observation networks.

A remarkably preserved horseshoe crab fossil from North America offers rare insight into some of the earliest known cases of animal disease in a Late Carboniferous swamp – more than 300 million years before the age of dinosaurs.

The specimen, uncovered from the mass-burial fossil deposit at the famous Mazon Creek Lagerstätte in Illinois in the US, shows more than 100 small pits across the front of its shell, representing one of the earliest documented examples of microbial or algal infection killing groups of these ancient aquatic animals.

New research reveals how the speed of ocean currents and the shape of the seabed influence the amount of heat flowing underneath Antarctic ice shelves, contributing to melting.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) used an autonomous underwater vehicle to survey beneath the Dotson Ice Shelf in the Amundsen Sea, an area of rapid glacial ice loss largely due to increasing ocean heat around and below ice shelves.