VOL. 97 NO. 12 15 JUN 2016 Earth & Space Science News Learning to Link Land and Air Reality Test for Climate Models Crowdsourced Seismology A Hole in Earth’s Surface Why Publish with AGU? 19 journals covering Earth, space and Strong interdisciplinary sciences Reputation Fast Time to 1st decision Time to publication Publication < 8 weeks < 15–22 working days #1 in Geochemistry and Geophysics Reviews of Geophysics TWO #1 in Paleontology #1 High Paleoceanography JOURNALS #2 in Limnology Impact Water Resources Research #4 in Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES) * According to 2014 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2015) Global 3 open access journals + 16 journals with open access options Reach 85,000+ articles freely accessible 24 months after publication Learn more at publications.agu.org Earth & Space Science News Contents 15 JUNE 2016 PROJECT UPDATE VOLUME 97, ISSUE 12 20 A More Powerful Reality Test for Climate Models A new climate model evaluation package will deliver objective comparisons between models and observations for research and model development and provide a framework for community engagement. NEWS 4 Gypsum Forms in an Unexpected Way Scientists spot the “stem cell” building 14 blocks that lay the foundation for gypsum’s formation. COVER RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT Teaching the Integration of Geography Ionospheric Waves and Atmospheric Sciences 29 Linked to Polar Atmospheric Dynamics Atmospheric scientists spent a decade incorporating geographic Ionospheric waves are likely to be caused information systems into their research and operations. Now it is time by processes in the polar atmosphere to incorporate GIS into atmospheric science education. rather than by space weather. Earth & Space Science News Eos.org // 1 Contents DEPARTMENTS Editor in Chief Barbara T. Richman: AGU, Washington, D. C., USA; eos_ [email protected] Editors Christina M. S. Cohen Wendy S. Gordon Carol A. 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Sgt. 1st Class Malcolm McClendon. facebook.com/AmericanGeophysicalUnion @AGU_Eos linkedin.com/company/american-geophysical-union youtube.com/user/AGUvideos 2 // Eos 15 June 2016 NEWS Undersea Data Tie Slow Fault Slip to Tsunami- Causing Quakes earthquakes at shallow depths within this margin sent tsunamis crashing onto New Zealand’s shore, damaging buildings and roads. Slowly Slipping Plate Scientists have long tracked tectonic plate movements at subduction zones—for exam- ple, in Japan, Costa Rica, and the U.S. Pacific Northwest—by using land-based GPS moni- tors on the overlying plate that can detect motions deep below. However, gathering data on plate behavior at the relatively shallow undersea trench that lies offshore and is where the leading edge of the overlying plate meets the subducting plate has proven to be a difficult task requiring other sorts of sensors. GPS observations typically reveal slow- slip events in subduction zones at depths 25–50 kilometers below the trench, Wallace said. Onshore near the Hikurangi margin, GPS measurements have shown that slow-slip events occur roughly every 18 months, the Takeo Yagi, University of Tokyo Yagi, Takeo larger ones taking place once every 4–5 years, Scientists deploy an ocean bottom seismometer and absolute pressure gauge offshore of Gisborne, New Zealand, according to Wallace. To find out whether from the R/V Tangaroa. slow slip could be observed at shallow depths and offshore near the trench, she and her team picked a yearlong window of time when ecent monitoring of the seafloor off ever, in slow- slip events, which are common they would mostly likely detect a slow- slip the coast of New Zealand has revealed at subduction zones, sliding of the plates at a event. Then, in May 2014, they deployed an R that episodes of slow rupture of Earth’s more rapid pace than usual (although still array of 15 ocean bottom seismometers and crust can occur in the same shallow portion much slower than the sudden shift of an 24 seafloor pressure gauges to record possible of a fault zone where tsunami- generating earthquake) relieves stress in the fault zone events. earthquakes originate. The new finding deep- over a period of typically days to months. Between May 2014 and June 2015, the pres- ens scientists’ suspicions that the type of In the new research published on 6 May, sure detectors revealed vertical movements of slow- motion, or “silent,” earthquake that Wallace and her colleagues studied a sub- the ocean floor by, in essence, weighing the the researchers detected, known as a slow- duction zone called the Hikurangi margin off overlying water column: Higher pressure slip event, may signal or even trigger the the east coast of New Zealand’s North meant that the seafloor sank and more water onset of tsunami- generating earthquakes. Island, where the Pacific plate slowly slides pressed down, whereas a lower pressure indi- “There seems to be a link potentially with under the Australian plate. In 1947, two cated a rising seafloor, which displaced water where these really shallow slow-slip events and decreased the pressure. happen and where tsunami- generating