A new study reveals how sulfur compounds are metabolized under oxygen-deficient conditions – and which microorganisms are responsible.

The gas in hot springs could reveal the very first signs of a new tectonic plate boundary forming. By testing helium and carbon isotopes from geothermal springs along the Kafue Rift of Central Africa, scientists have detected changes in isotope ratios that reveal that the boundary has broken all the way through the Earth’s crust to the mantle, allowing fluids to escape the mantle and reach the surface. The Kafue Rift is part of the Southwest African Rift System, which runs from Tanzania to Namibia, which — if it continues to develop — could become a new plate boundary splitting Africa in half. 

New study reveals brief, globally coherent phosphorus spikes linked to ancient marine mass extinctions.

The findings highlight how nutrient-cycle disruption can contribute to ocean oxygen loss and ecosystem stress.