Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Volume 4 Issue 4, April 2011

The timing and style of magmatism and extension during the final stages of continental breakup are uncertain. Analysis of ongoing rifting processes in Ethiopia reveals that after a protracted period of extension by magma intrusion, late-stage breakup is characterized by a final phase of plate stretching and voluminous basalt extrusion. The image shows a basaltic eruption from Erta Ale volcano located in the Danakil Depression, Ethiopia.

Photo by Lorraine Field, University of Bristol.

Letter p248

Editorial

  • The deaths of birds have become a rallying point against the proliferation of wind farms. Yet the loss of human life in mines is rarely linked with coal as an energy source.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Nature Geoscience has joined Twitter. We share our take on exciting developments in the Earth and planetary sciences as they happen.

    Editorial
Top of page ⤴

Correspondence

Top of page ⤴

Commentary

  • Crops are at risk in a changing climate. Farmers in the developing world will be able to insure against harvest failure if robust insurance packages, based on a geophysical index rather than individual loss, become widely available.

    • Molly E. Brown
    • Daniel E. Osgood
    • Miguel A. Carriquiry
    Commentary
Top of page ⤴

Research Highlights

Top of page ⤴

News & Views

  • An observed hemispheric structure in the Earth's inner core has been hard to reconcile with evidence that it rotates faster than the mantle. Detection of a shift of the hemisphere boundary that occurred over geological timescales removes the contradiction.

    • Mathieu Dumberry
    News & Views
  • Motion along faults can occur in sudden earthquakes or through steady, aseismic creep. Rock samples retrieved by drilling deep into a creeping section of the San Andreas Fault show that clay minerals in fault rock promote creep behaviour.

    • Ben van der Pluijm
    News & Views
  • Chondritic meteorites are remnants of the ancient Solar System. Analysis of the dust rims often found on their constituent particles shows that the rims were swept up while the particles wafted about and collided in a weakly turbulent protoplanetary nebula.

    • Jeff Cuzzi
    News & Views
  • How the chemical composition of sea water changes on its journey through the world's oceans is poorly understood. Systematic measurements of dissolved trace metals across the Pacific Ocean suggest that these metals may help track sources and mixing of water masses.

    • Martin Frank
    News & Views
Top of page ⤴

Letter

  • Trace elements and their isotopes have been explored as tracers for the movement of water masses. Measurements of the high-field-strength elements Zr, Hf, Nb and Ta along two meridional sections of the Pacific Ocean suggest higher ratios of Zr/Hf and Nb/Ta than expected, suggesting that these ratios will be useful for tracking water masses.

    • M. Lutfi Firdaus
    • Tomoharu Minami
    • Yoshiki Sohrin
    Letter
  • The hydrological balance of the Black Sea is governed by riverine input and by the exchange with the Mediterranean Sea. A speleothem record from a cave in northern Turkey that tracks the isotopic signature of Black Sea surface water suggests an open connection to the Mediterranean Sea in at least twelve periods in the past 670,000 years.

    • S. Badertscher
    • D. Fleitmann
    • O. Tüysüz
    Letter
  • Microstructures from the 3.5-billion-year-old Apex Chert have been interpreted as the remains of ancient cyanobacteria. Geochemical analyses suggest similar structures at the same location are instead haematite-filled fractures, although carbonaceous material in the surrounding matrix is consistent with the presence of microbes at this time.

    • Craig P. Marshall
    • Julienne R. Emry
    • Alison Olcott Marshall
    Letter
  • Rock fabrics record the formation, compaction and deformation history of that rock. High-resolution mapping of tiny grains in the Allende CV meteorite reveals preservation of a spherical fabric that may have formed in the solar nebula, and could be the oldest rock fabric to have formed in the Solar System.

    • Philip A. Bland
    • Lauren E. Howard
    • Kathryn A. Dyl
    Letter
  • The timing and style of magmatism and extension during the final stages of continental breakup are uncertain. Analysis of ongoing rifting processes in Ethiopia reveals that after a protracted period of extension by magma intrusion, late-stage breakup is characterized by a final phase of plate stretching and voluminous basalt extrusion.

    • Ian D. Bastow
    • Derek Keir
    Letter
  • The San Andreas Fault is weak compared with the surrounding rock, but the cause of weakness is debated. Measurements of the strength of rocks taken from the active fault indicate that the San Andreas Fault is inherently weak and does not heal after rupture, causing it to slip aseismically in central California.

    • B. M. Carpenter
    • C. Marone
    • D. M. Saffer
    Letter
  • The 2010 Haiti earthquake was initially thought to have ruptured the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault, but previously unrecognized faults were later implicated. Radar imaging of surface deformation caused by the earthquake reveals uplift of alluvial fans and subsidence of mountains, consistent with reverse motion on a blind thrust fault.

    • Manabu Hashimoto
    • Yo Fukushima
    • Yukitoshi Fukahata
    Letter
  • Volcanism at mid-ocean ridges is usually effusive, but some explosive eruptions have been documented. Measurement of the carbon dioxide content of lavas erupted at the Juan de Fuca Ridge, Pacific Ocean, indicate that elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide in the upper oceanic mantle could drive these explosive eruptions.

    • Christoph Helo
    • Marc-Antoine Longpré
    • John Stix
    Letter
  • Earth’s solid inner core is separated into two distinct hemispheres and is thought to rotate faster than the Earth. An analysis of seismic travel time data allows quantification of the displacement of the hemisphere boundary with time, and results in an estimated super-rotation several orders of magnitude smaller than previously reported.

    • Lauren Waszek
    • Jessica Irving
    • Arwen Deuss
    Letter
Top of page ⤴

Backstory

  • Brett Carpenter and colleagues got more than they bargained for when cleaning the mud off a metre-long piece of core from the San Andreas Fault.

    Backstory
Top of page ⤴

Search

Quick links