Geomorphology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Britain’s separation from mainland Europe is believed to be the result of spillover from a proglacial lake in the North Sea, but this has remained unproven. Here, the authors show that the opening of the Dover Strait occurred in two episodes, where initial lake spillover was followed by catastrophic flooding.

    • Sanjeev Gupta
    • , Jenny S. Collier
    •  & John C. R. Arthur

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Raked linear dunes are a rare dune type, but the mechanisms for growth have not been constrained. Here, the authors show that a tridirectional wind regime is required to enable this extremely rare dune type to develop, where the raked pattern may develop preferentially on the leeward side.

    • Ping Lü
    • , Clément Narteau
    •  & Sylvain Courrech du Pont

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Point measurements have historically been used to assess salt marsh vulnerability; however, these metrics do not integrate over the necessary spatiotemporal scales. Here, the authors show that two geomorphic-based, spatiotemporally integrative metrics reveal vulnerability not captured by traditional metrics.

    • Neil K. Ganju
    • , Zafer Defne
    •  & Luca Carniello

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Erosion rates and ice cover extent of present day fjords and summit plateau landscapes beyond the last deglaciation are virtually unknown. Here, the authors constrain the long-term denudation rates and glaciation history in west Greenland based on cosmogenic nuclides.

    • Astrid Strunk
    • , Mads Faurschou Knudsen
    •  & Nicolaj K. Larsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For half a century, the cause for recent uplift of the European Alps has been debated. Here, the authors show that ∼90% of the geodetically measured rock uplift in the Alps can be explained by the Earth’s viscoelastic response to ice melting after the Last Glacial Maximum.

    • Jürgen Mey
    • , Dirk Scherler
    •  & Manfred R. Strecker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Altiplano-Puna magma body is located in the world's second highest plateau, the Altiplano-Puna, but the influence of melt production in the surface uplift of the Central Andes is unclear. Perkinset al. link surface topography and isotactic modelling to constrain the melt production in the magma body.

    • Jonathan P. Perkins
    • , Kevin M. Ward
    •  & Noah J. Finnegan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In thermokarst landscapes, permafrost thaw causes land subsidence with impacts on hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry. Here, Olefeldt et al. produce circumpolar maps of thermokarst distribution, identifying that they cover 20% of the northern permafrost region, but store half the below-ground organic carbon.

    • D. Olefeldt
    • , S. Goswami
    •  & M. R. Turetsky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The precise contribution of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) melt to global sea-level rise remains enigmatic. Here, the authors generate an ice sheet thinning history for the Weddell Sea embayment and propose that this sector of the WAIS contributed to mid-Holocene, rather than late-glacial sea-level rise.

    • Andrew S. Hein
    • , Shasta M. Marrero
    •  & David E. Sugden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reconstructing past ocean conditions, particularly current velocity, is difficult due to a lack of available proxies. Here, the authors present a set of well-preserved buried iceberg scours from the mid-Norwegian slope, from which they are able to infer North Atlantic current speeds during the third-last glacial.

    • Andrew M. W. Newton
    • , Mads Huuse
    •  & Simon H. Brocklehurst

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet's response to future warming is hindered by a lack of historical evidence. Here, based on geomorphological evidence from and cosmogenic dating of Ellsworth Mountains' deposits, the authors show that at least a regional ice sheet survived Pleistocene interglacial cycles.

    • Andrew S. Hein
    • , John Woodward
    •  & David E. Sugden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Given the absence of a major river system in the Western Sahara, the source of late Quaternary fluvial sediments along the West African margin remains unclear. Here, the authors present geomorphological data that reveal the existence of a large buried paleodrainage network on the Mauritanian coast.

    • C. Skonieczny
    • , P. Paillou
    •  & F. Grousset

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The stratigraphy of the Molasse basin has been related to the convergent regime, but aspects do not fit with observations or isostatic models. Here, the authors show that rollback of the European plate may have caused the thick sedimentary successions in the foreland basin, independent of plate convergence mechanisms.

    • Fritz Schlunegger
    •  & Edi Kissling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    U-shaped glacial valleys dominate >10 ka since the last major glaciation and the transitions from glacier-dominated to fluvial regimes are poorly understood. Here, the authors use digital topographic data to show that glacial topography is rapidly replaced by fluvial topography where rock uplift rates are high.

    • Günther Prasicek
    • , Isaac J. Larsen
    •  & David R. Montgomery

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Utilizing supercritical geothermal water could multiply energy production, but the abundance, location and size of such resources is unclear. Here, the authors present numerical simulations and suggest that supercritical water may play a key role in removing heat from all magmatic intrusions.

    • Samuel Scott
    • , Thomas Driesner
    •  & Philipp Weis

  • Article |

    Whether the origins of inner gorges were fluvial or subglacial has been debated for decades. Here, Jansen et al. present new evidence, in the form of a suite of cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages and a deglaciation map, which suggests a subglacial meltwater origin for inner gorges in northern Sweden.

    • J.D. Jansen
    • , A.T. Codilean
    •  & S. Xu

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