Rapid environmental change is driving the need for complex and comprehensive scientific information that supports policies aimed at managing natural resources through international treaties, platforms, and networks. One successful approach for delivering such information has been the development of essential variables for climate (1), oceans (2), biodiversity (3), and sustainable development goals (4) (ECVs, EOVs, EBVs, and ESDGVs, respectively). These efforts have improved consensus on terminology and identified essential sets of measurements for characterizing and monitoring changes on our planet. In doing so, they have advanced science and informed policy. As an important but largely unanticipated consequence, conceptualizing these variables has also given rise to discussions regarding data discovery, data access, and governance of research infrastructures. Such discussions are vital to ensure effective storage, distribution, and use of data among management agencies, researchers, and policymakers (5,6).Although the current essential variables frameworks account for the biosphere, atmosphere, and some aspects of the hydrosphere (1-4), they largely overlook geodiversity-the variety of abiotic features and processes of the land surface and subsurface (7). Analogous to biodiversity, geodiversity is important for the maintenance of ecosystem functioning and services (8), and areas high in geodiversity have been Mining is one example of the human impact on geodiversity. Active mines cause a decrease in local biodiversity, but in some cases they can provide an important habitat for specialized and rare species after the mine has been abandoned. Image credit: Shutterstock/1968.

The performance of an open or closed loop ground source heat pump system depends on local geological conditions. It is important these are determined as accurately as possible when designing a system in order to maximise efficiency and minimise installation costs.Factors that need to be considered are surface temperature, sub-surface temperatures down to 100 -200 m, thermal conductivities and diffusivities of the soil and rock layers, groundwater levels and flows and aquifer properties. In addition rock strength is a critical factor in determining the excavation or drilling method required at a site and the associated costs. The key to determining all of these factors is an accurate conceptual site scale model of the ground conditions (soils, geology, thermogeology, engineering geology and hydrogeology).The British Geological Survey has used the modern digital geological mapping of the UK as a base onto which appropriate attributes can be assigned. As a result it is possible to generate regional maps of surface and sub-surface temperatures, rock strength and depth to water. This information can be used by designers, planners and installers of ground source heat pump systems. The use of appropriate geological factors will assist in creating a system that meets the heating or cooling load of the building without unnecessary over engineering.2

Recent investigations from modern environments demonstrate that many terminal moraines do not simply record a single glacial maximum, but instead reveal a complex pattern of ice-marginal behaviour including polyphase retreat. Within this study, we examine the geomorphology, geology and internal structure of a terminal moraine complex -the 'Cromer Ridge' in north Norfolk to reconstruct patterns of ice-marginal behaviour. Previously, this landform was interpreted as the limit of a southern extension of the British Ice Sheet during a Middle Pleistocene glaciation. Evidence presented here reveals a more complicated pattern of ice-marginal behaviour with the 'Cromer Ridge' reinterpreted as a 'complex' comprising several ridge elements. We propose that the maximum ice extent lay further to the south, with the size and morphology of the largest ridge element (the 'Cromer Ridge' as previously defined) a facet of thrust-stacking at an ice-marginal stillstand. We recognise multiple oscillations of the ice-front recorded against a twelve-stage model for the decay of the southern margins of a fast-flowing lobe of North Sea ice. Changes in ice-marginal dynamics are identified by the superimposition and lateral and vertical evolution of glacitectonic styles. Differences between these various states, and switches between 'shallow' and 'deep' thinskinned glacitectonics, are strongly influenced by sub-marginal and proglacial water availability. Examination of the evidence for the morphostratigraphic proposals for the glacitectonic assemblage, within the context of the above interpretation, suggests that many of the 'glacigenic landforms' are erosional and a MIS 12 age of formation is favored although several anomalies remain to be explained. IntroductionTerminal moraines are an important landform within the glacial landsystem and are widely recognised within both contemporary (Boulton et al., 1996(Boulton et al., , 1999Bennett, 2001; Evans and Twigg, 2002; Evans, 2005;Benediktsson et al., 2010) and relict glacial environments (van der Meer, 1987; Lee, J.R., Phillips, E., Booth, S.J., Rose, J., Jordan, H.M., Pawley, S.M., Warren, M., Lawley, R.S. 2013. A polyphase glacitectonic model for ice-marginal retreat and terminal moraine development: the Middle Pleistocene British Ice Sheet, northern Norfolk, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 124, 753-777. PRE-PROOF ACCEPTEF MANUSCRIPT.2 Hart, 1990;Van der Wateren, 1995;Harris et al., 1997;Phillips et al., 2002;Wilson, 2002;Thomas and Chiverrell, 2007;Johnson et al., 2013). Previously, they have been considered as providing a visible record of a maximum extent of glacier advance, although many now consider them to provide a more dynamic record of glacier retreat (e.g. Thomas, 1984;Thomas et al., 2004;Thomas and Chiverrell, 2007;Lüthgens and Böse, 2011; Clark et al., 2012).The formation of terminal moraines typically involves the complex interplay between ice-marginal to sub-marginal sedimentation and glacitectonics; the latter including proglacial and sub-margina...

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Crowd-sourced soil data for Europe Since its launch by the UK Natural Environment Research Council in June 2012, the free iPhone app mySoil has attracted more than 2.6 million web hits and 12,500 dedicated users (see go.nature.com/ty1ukf). Next month, a new version will extend its coverage to soils in the European Union (EU). Users of mySoil can currently view soil maps of the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland) that provide regional information on soil depth, texture, pH and organic-matter content, and on vegetation habitats. They can upload photos and descriptions of their local soils. More than 500 entries have so far contributed to this valuable data bank of soil properties in different localities. The remarkable success of collecting data in this way reflects widespread public interest and promotes communication with the science community. With infrastructure covering an estimated average of 9% of the EU-often spread across the most productive soils-and with sustainable land management becoming increasingly urgent, mySoil's democratization of soil data is a timely development.