Geochemistry articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Letter |

    The mantle and continental crust contain excessive amounts of radiogenic lead, implying that a complementary reservoir of unradiogenic lead should exist somewhere on Earth. Isotopic analyses of mantle rocks exposed on the Atlantic Ocean floor reveal that sulphide inclusions can have extremely unradiogenic lead compositions, suggesting that the reservoir could exist within the mantle itself.

    • Kevin W. Burton
    • , Bénédicte Cenki-Tok
    •  & Ian J. Parkinson

  • Article |

    Carbon capture and geological storage represents a potential means of managing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. An analysis of a 135,000 palaeorecord shows that pulses of carbon dioxide leakage from a natural reservoir in Utah are associated with episodes of glacial unloading.

    • Niko Kampman
    • , Neil M. Burnside
    •  & Mike J. Bickle

  • News & Views |

    A giant impact on the young proto-Earth is thought to explain the formation of the Moon. High-precision analysis of titanium isotopes in lunar rocks suggests that the Moon and Earth's mantle are more similar than existing models permit.

    • Matthias M. M. Meier

  • Letter |

    Geochemical evidence continues to challenge giant impact models, which predict that the Moon formed from both proto-Earth and impactor material. Analyses of lunar samples reveal isotopic homogeneity in titanium, a highly refractory element, suggesting lunar material was derived predominantly from the mantle of the proto-Earth.

    • Junjun Zhang
    • , Nicolas Dauphas
    •  & Alexei Fedkin

  • Article |

    The supply of magma to Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, was thought to have been steady over the past decades. Measurements of deformation, gas emissions, seismicity and lava composition and temperatures show that instead magma supply from the mantle doubled in 2003–2007, implying that hotspots can provide varying amounts of magma over just a few years.

    • Michael P. Poland
    • , Asta Miklius
    •  & Carl R. Thornber

  • Letter |

    Subduction transports water into the mantle, but it is uncertain whether the water is preserved in the slab or is rapidly diffused. Analysis of hydrogen and boron isotopes in volcanic rocks sourced from an ancient subducted slab beneath the southwestern Pacific Ocean provides evidence for the long-term preservation of subducted water in the mantle.

    • A. M. Shaw
    • , E. H. Hauri
    •  & J. M. Sinton

  • Letter |

    The absence of very deep moonquakes implies that the lower mantle of the Moon is partially molten. An analysis of the density range of lunar melts at high pressures suggests that only titanium-rich melt is neutrally buoyant deep within the Moon.

    • Mirjam van Kan Parker
    • , Chrystèle Sanloup
    •  & Wim van Westrenen

  • News & Views |

    Toxic heavy metals can accumulate in Earth's near surface to form ore deposits. Experimental and direct measurements of ore fluids reveal the efficient mobilization and deposition of uranium, implying potentially rapid formation of economic-grade ore.

    • Enikő Bali

  • Letter |

    Rates of crust formation at mid-ocean ridges are expected to vary with rates of plate spreading. U–Pb dating of zircon minerals from the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise reveals protracted formation of gabbroic rocks over timescales comparable with slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges, suggesting similar timescales of magmatic processes at slow- and fast-spreading ridges.

    • Matthew Rioux
    • , C. Johan Lissenberg
    •  & Nobumichi Shimizu

  • News & Views |

    The mechanisms for forming the abundant volcanic islands on ocean floors are debated. The geochemical signature of volcanic rocks from the northeast Indian Ocean suggests that seamounts there formed from melting recycled ancient continental rocks.

    • Sally A. Gibson

  • Review Article |

    Volcanoes formed above the Hawaiian mantle plume exhibit a striking contrast in the geochemical characteristics of the lavas erupted at the northern Kea compared with the southern Loa volcanoes. Isotopic data show that these trends have persisted for more than 5 million years and may mirror compositional heterogeneities in the deep mantle.

    • Dominique Weis
    • , Michael O. Garcia
    •  & James S. Scoates

  • Article |

    Wetlands cover more than 6% of the global ice-free land area, and represent an important arsenic sink. Laboratory experiments suggest that natural organic matter plays an active role in the immobilization of arsenic in anoxic wetlands.

    • Peggy Langner
    • , Christian Mikutta
    •  & Ruben Kretzschmar

  • Letter |

    Subduction modifies the cycling of Earth’s volatile elements. Geochemical analyses of fragments of mantle rocks collected above the Batan Island subduction zone, Philippines, suggest that wet sediment melts are released from the subducted slab, followed later by release of aqueous fluids, yet a significant amount of water is retained in the wedge.

    • Simon Turner
    • , John Caulfield
    •  & Gaelle Prouteau

  • News & Views |

    A series of extreme cooling episodes, starting 750 million years ago, could have repeatedly turned the planet into an ice-covered snowball. Carbon cycle modelling suggests that the timing of the glaciations can be explained by chemical weathering rates.

    • A. Joshua West

  • Letter |

    Gas hydrates have been suggested as a carbon source for Palaeogene hyperthermal events, but warm seafloor temperatures are thought to have limited their accumulation. Numerical simulations suggest that enhanced organic carbon sedimentation and methanogenesis could have compensated for the smaller area of hydrate stability.

    • Guangsheng Gu
    • , Gerald R. Dickens
    •  & Walter G. Chapman

  • Letter |

    Seismic data have identified large-scale compositional heterogeneities in Earth’s deep mantle, but their origin is debated. Numerical modelling demonstrates that seismological and geochemical constraints on the character of these heterogeneities can be satisfied if they are composed of primitive material formed early in Earth’s history.

    • Frédéric Deschamps
    • , Edouard Kaminski
    •  & Paul J. Tackley

  • Article |

    Noble gases from the atmosphere are carried into Earth’s mantle through subduction. Geochemical analyses of rocks that record slab dehydration during progressively deeper stages of subduction indicate that noble gases incorporated into hydrous minerals close to the sea floor are efficiently transported to mantle depths of at least 200 km.

    • Mark A. Kendrick
    • , Marco Scambelluri
    •  & David Phillips

  • Letter |

    Lavas erupted from volcanoes in the north of the Hawaiian volcanic island chain have a different geochemical signature from those in the south. Analysis of the geochemistry of lavas erupted in the Samoan and Marquesas volcanic chains reveals similar trends, implying that the lowermost mantle beneath the southern Pacific is isotopically enriched.

    • Shichun Huang
    • , Paul S. Hall
    •  & Matthew G. Jackson

  • Letter |

    The mechanisms by which carbon is transported from subducted oceanic crust into the overlying mantle wedge are poorly understood. Geochemical analyses of diamond-bearing fluid inclusions found in the western Alps indicate that carbon dissolution, driven by fluids released from the subducting plate, provides an efficient mechanism to transport carbon into the mantle.

    • M. L. Frezzotti
    • , J. Selverstone
    •  & R. Compagnoni

  • Research Highlights |

    • Amy Whitchurch

  • News & Views |

    The quantity of heat generated by radioactive decay in Earth's interior is controversial. Measurements of geoneutrinos emitted from the mantle during this decay indicate that this source contributes only about half of Earth's total outgoing heat flux.

    • Jun Korenaga

  • Letter |

    Stretching of the continental crust can double its surface area, but it is unknown whether similar amounts of extension occur at depth. Seismic results from the central Basin and Range province, western USA, reveal a thick root of lithospheric mantle that has not been extended and indicates that crustal stretching is decoupled from extension at depth.

    • Vera Schulte-Pelkum
    • , Glenn Biasi
    •  & Craig Jones

  • Article |

    Lavas erupted above subduction zones commonly show evidence for recycling of subducted sediments. Geochemical analyses of sedimentary rocks that experienced subduction indicate that trace elements in the sediments can be efficiently recycled, because metamorphosed sediments rise buoyantly from the subducting plate and undergo partial melting at high temperatures in the overlying mantle wedge.

    • Mark D. Behn
    • , Peter B. Kelemen
    •  & Hans-Joachim Massonne

  • Article |

    Relative contributions to Earth’s total heat flux from the radioactive decay of isotopes versus primordial heat are debated. Measurements of geoneutrino particles emitted during radioactive decay in the Earth’s interior indicate that radiogenic isotopes contribute only about half of the total heat flux.

    • A. Gando
    • , Y. Gando
    •  & M. P. Decowski

  • Letter |

    Carbonaceous minerals in 3.8-billion-year-old rocks from West Greenland have been used as evidence for early life on Earth. Geochemical analyses of similar carbon minerals in 3.75- to 4.2-billion-year-old rocks from Canada show that they can be derived from subsequent alteration more than a billion years after the initial formation.

    • D. Papineau
    • , B. T. De Gregorio
    •  & M. L. Fogel

  • Article |

    Two types of mountain-forming systems exist on Earth — external orogens form during oceanic–continental plate collisions and internal orogens form where continental plates collide. Hafnium isotope data from orogens worldwide show that each has produced a distinctive signature over the past 550 Myr, reflecting the contrasting subduction geometry in each setting.

    • William J. Collins
    • , Elena A. Belousova
    •  & J. Brendan Murphy

  • Article |

    Individual rock units are predicted by tectonic models to undergo numerous, complex cycles of subduction. Analysis of high-pressure rocks exposed in the Sesia zone, Italian Western Alps, suggest that slices of the crust underwent two distinct episodes of subduction to mantle depths in fewer than 20 million years.

    • Daniela Rubatto
    • , Daniele Regis
    •  & Sarlae R. B. McAlpine

  • Letter |

    The geochemistry of lavas erupted at locations where mantle plumes interact with mid-ocean ridges reflects the mixing between the two sources. Analysis of lavas erupted above the Foundation hotspot, near the Pacific–Antarctic Ridge, reveal a geochemical signature indicative of both a primitive mantle plume source and a recycled oceanic lithosphere source.

    • N. A. Stroncik
    •  & C. W. Devey

  • 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.

  • Article |

    The photosynthetic production of oxygen in the ocean is thought to have begun at least 2.7 billion years ago. The geochemistry of marine sediments deposited 2.6 billion years ago suggests that ocean margins were oxygenated at least 100 million years before the first significant increase in atmospheric oxygen concentrations.

    • Brian Kendall
    • , Christopher T. Reinhard
    •  & Ariel D. Anbar

  • Letter |

    At subduction zones, andesite lavas erupt in greater abundance than the individual magmas that mix to produce them. Textural and geochemical analyses of andesites from Mount Hood, Oregon, reveal that injection and mixing of iron- and magnesium-rich magma in the magma chamber can initiate the volcanic eruption.

    • Adam J. R. Kent
    • , Cristina Darr
    •  & Kari M. Cooper

  • Article |

    The metal content of ore deposits formed during subduction-zone volcanism was thought to be established when the ore fluid separates from the parent magma. Analyses of metal concentrations in erupted melts and the volcanic gases emitted after an eruption in Indonesia reveal that metals can be added to the ore fluid later, during mixing with separated melts.

    • Olivier Nadeau
    • , Anthony E. Williams-Jones
    •  & John Stix

  • Letter |

    The Earth formed through accretion of many planetary embryos that were probably differentiated into a metallic core and a silicate mantle. The metals and silicates were assumed to fully mix during accretion, but models of Earth’s formation that assume only partial mixing are found to be equally compatible with geochemical observations.

    • John F. Rudge
    • , Thorsten Kleine
    •  & Bernard Bourdon

  • Letter |

    Natural petroleum seepage emits large volumes of oil and methane to the oceans every year, accompanied by the formation of asphalt volcanoes on the sea floor. The discovery of seven asphalt volcanoes off the coast of southern California may help to explain high methane emissions recorded during the late Pleistocene.

    • David L. Valentine
    • , Christopher M. Reddy
    •  & Morgan Soloway

  • Letter |

    The sedimentary deposits at Meridiani Planum on Mars were formed in acidic surface waters. Geochemical calculations show that the oxidation of dissolved iron and the precipitation of oxidized iron minerals in the surface waters could be sufficient to generate the inferred acidity.

    • Joel A. Hurowitz
    • , Woodward W. Fischer
    •  & Ralph E. Milliken

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