We live in a time of historically unprecedented change in the Earth system. Even a quick look at the current geosciences literature reveals research articles detailing rapid and extensive changes in the Earth's atmosphere, climate and hydrologic systems, oceans, and land surface. Addressing these new research priorities is an increasingly interdisciplinary undertaking, and the results of this research needs to reach a much broader scientific audience. Currently, geosciences research is

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... in a wide variety of more or less specialized journals, which are typically devoted to one of the many individual disciplines which make up the geosciences. While much of the research that appears in these journals is firmly founded in one of the fields that make up the traditional geosciences, more and more of these studies cut across disciplinary boundaries. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to easily place much of today's cutting edge geoscientific research neatly within the confines of a single geoscientific discipline. Multi-, cross-, and transdisciplinary research is increasingly the norm in the earth sciences, as collaborative teams of geoscientists work together to synthesize and extend our understanding of the entire earth system. Accompanying this evolution in the scope and extent of the geosciences is an explosion of new data sources and analytical technologies available to address research questions. These new data and analytical resources not only enable a deeper understanding of the foundational questions within each individual geosciences discipline, they also provide the backbone of integrative, crossdisciplinary research within the field. Reflecting this trend, publication outlets in the geosciences are becoming more interdisciplinary, but the need for suitable publication venues remains an unmet need in the field. It is within this changing scientific context, and in response to this need for more broadspectrum publication outlets that we launch AIMS Geosciences. As disciplinary boundaries within the geosciences become broader and more inclusive, the need for suitable publication outlets, where cutting edge research addressing a broad array of scientific questions can be addressed within a single publication increases. With AIM Geosciences, our goal and intent is to provide such an outlet. The stated aim of AIMS Geosciences is to provide a timely venue for high-quality study of the Earth and other planets in a general or interdisciplinary approach, with special attention to research that