Volume 17

  • No. 3 March 2024

    Ancient human influence on wildfires

    A shift towards more frequent, less intense fires in Australia began about 11,000 years ago due to management by indigenous societies, according to charcoal and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon records from cored lake sediments extending back 150,000 years. The image shows a raft-mounted hydraulic coring rig on Girraween Lagoon, northern Australia, looking over to Eucalypt savanna woodland. Middle right is the raft-mounted hydraulic coring rig used to take 18 metres of sediment from the bottom of the lake.

    See Bird et al.

  • No. 2 February 2024

    Emergence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

    Ocean sediment records indicate that the modern Antarctic Circumpolar Current did not exist prior to climatic cooling in the Late Miocene, suggesting an origin linked to the expansion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The image shows Spanish polar research vessel BIO Hespérides (A-33) offshore Livingston Island in the South Shetlands Archipelago, Antarctic Peninsula.

    See Evangelinos et al.

  • No. 1 January 2024

    Rare earth elements in circulation

    Mobilization of in-use rare earth element stocks in regions of high consumption can ease dependence on regions of rare earth element extraction, according to dynamic integrated modelling combining material flow and scenario analysis. The satellite image shows wind turbines offshore Jiangsu, China, that have magnets containing substantial rare earth elements, representing a potential urban mine for reuse.

    See Chen et al.