Mineralogy articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Article |

    Experiments suggest that magnetite precipitation on early Mars was accompanied by the release of H2 that may have helped to warm the planet and stabilize liquid water at the Martian surface.

    • Nicholas J. Tosca
    • , Imad A. M. Ahmed
    •  & Joel A. Hurowitz

  • Article |

    The lowermost mantle and transition zone are increasingly oxidized at depth, according to analyses of the oxidation state of iron in majoritic garnet inclusions from deep diamonds.

    • Ekaterina S. Kiseeva
    • , Denis M. Vasiukov
    •  & Leonid Dubrovinsky

  • Article |

    Past megathrust earthquakes in the Costa Rica subduction zone have slipped all the way up to the seafloor, according to analyses of core and seismic data. This shallow slip was accommodated by layers of weak biogenic ooze.

    • Paola Vannucchi
    • , Elena Spagnuolo
    •  & Stefan Nielsen

  • Article |

    Whether subducted oceanic crust is recycled via the mantle back into newly forming seafloor at mid-ocean ridges is unclear. Laboratory partitioning experiments now reveal that recycled material is not required to create oceanic lithosphere.

    • Andrew K. Matzen
    • , Bernard J. Wood
    •  & Edward M. Stolper

  • Article |

    Quartz minerals in Earth’s crust are thought to melt at high temperatures. Laboratory friction experiments, however, show that metastable melting of quartz on a fault surface can occur at lower temperatures, and could lead to large earthquakes.

    • Sung Keun Lee
    • , Raehee Han
    •  & Takehiro Hirose

  • News & Views |

    The geological record preserves scant evidence for early plate tectonics. Analysis of eclogites — metamorphic rocks formed in subduction zones — in the Trans-Hudson mountain belt suggests modern-style subduction may have operated 1,800 million years ago.

    • Clare Warren

  • Article |

    Seismic data are inconsistent with a compositionally homogenous lower mantle. Simulations show that viscosity variation with depth in Earth’s early mantle may have prevented efficient mixing and allowed ancient mantle domains to persist.

    • Maxim D. Ballmer
    • , Christine Houser
    •  & Kei Hirose

  • Article |

    The crystal structure of iron under the extreme pressures and temperatures of Earth’s core is debated. Numerical simulations suggest that the body-centred cubic structure of iron is stable under inner-core conditions.

    • Anatoly B. Belonoshko
    • , Timofei Lukinov
    •  & Sergei I. Simak

  • Article |

    Carbonated silicate melts are expected to exist in the mantle, but have been elusive in nature. Geochemical analyses of rocks from the South China Sea identify such melts formed in the mantle and erupted at the surface through thin lithosphere.

    • Guo-Liang Zhang
    • , Li-Hui Chen
    •  & Albrecht W. Hofmann

  • Article |

    The MESSENGER spacecraft has revealed geochemical diversity across Mercury’s surface. Magma crystallization experiments suggest a crustal mineralogy consistent with a transition towards shallower and cooler mantle melting conditions.

    • Olivier Namur
    •  & Bernard Charlier

  • News & Views |

    Anomalously bright spots are seen on the dark cratered surface of the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn spacecraft's detection of sodium carbonates in bright areas is consistent with aqueous activity in an ice-poor and salty regolith.

    • Mikhail Zolotov

  • Article |

    The time at which plate tectonics were initiated on Earth is unclear. Geochemical analysis of diamonds suggests that recycled oxidized material could have been introduced to the mantle via subduction zones more than 3 billion years ago.

    • Katie A. Smart
    • , Sebastian Tappe
    •  & Lewis D. Ashwal

  • News & Views |

    The volcanic eruption that created the Ontong Java Plateau released large quantities of carbon dioxide. A reconstruction of CO2 concentrations suggests that the eruption promoted climate change and the expansion of ocean anoxia.

    • Heather M. Stoll

  • News & Views |

    Clear evidence for subduction-induced metamorphism, and thus the operation of plate tectonics on the ancient Earth has been lacking. Theoretical calculations indicate that we may have been looking for something that cannot exist.

    • Jun Korenaga

  • News & Views |

    The 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake ruptured part of a fault that typically slips in slow, transient events. Laboratory experiments show that when fault rocks are sheared at slow, plate tectonic speeds, the fault can slip either quickly or slowly.

    • Heather M. Savage

  • Letter |

    Magma in Earth’s crust is in a crystal-rich mushy state, yet must be fluidized before eruptions. Numerical simulations show that rapid injection of new magma into a reservoir creates a mixing bowl of fluid and crystals that are able to erupt.

    • G. W. Bergantz
    • , J. M. Schleicher
    •  & A. Burgisser

  • Letter |

    Rising temperature can increase soil organic matter decomposition and CO2 emissions. In a 4,000 km north–south transect in Chile and Antarctica, soil geochemistry, which can be modified by climate, is the dominant direct control of carbon storage.

    • Sebastian Doetterl
    • , Antoine Stevens
    •  & Pascal Boeckx

  • Letter |

    The composition of the Earth’s lower mantle is not well constrained. First-principles calculations support a pyrolitic composition containing ferric iron, suggesting that the upper and lower mantles are geochemically uniform.

    • Xianlong Wang
    • , Taku Tsuchiya
    •  & Atsushi Hase

  • News & Views |

    Subduction zone faults can slip slowly, generating tremor. The varying correlation between tidal stresses and tremor occurring deep in the Cascadia subduction zone suggests that the fault is inherently weak, and gets weaker as it slips.

    • Roland Bürgmann

  • News & Views |

    Subducting oceanic crust is sometimes observed to stagnate in the lower mantle. Laboratory experiments show that high pressures in the deep Earth may strengthen mantle rocks, increasing their viscosity and halting the sinking slabs.

    • Patrick Cordier

  • News & Views |

    Pinpointing when Earth's core formed depends on the extent of metal–silicate equilibration in the mantle. Vaporization and recondensation of impacting planetesimal cores during accretion may reconcile disparate lines of evidence.

    • William W. Anderson

  • Editorial |

    Modern societies require more and more metals, not least for renewable energy generation. Scientists from a range of disciplines are needed to prospect for ore deposits and provide a basis for sustainable exploration.

  • Commentary |

    Ore bodies buried deep in Earth's crust could meet increasing global demands for metals, but mining them would be costly and could damage the environment. Reinventing an ancient technology for bioleaching metals could provide a solution.

    • D. Barrie Johnson

  • News & Views |

    Metals often accumulate in the crust beneath volcanoes. Laboratory experiments and observations reveal important roles for magmatic vapours and brines in transporting and concentrating the metals into deposits worth targeting for extraction.

    • Olivier Nadeau

  • Letter |

    Earth’s core exhibits similar elastic properties to rubber. Experiments show that a high-pressure phase of iron carbide modifies iron’s elastic properties under inner-core conditions, suggesting that carbon is the light element in the core.

    • C. Prescher
    • , L. Dubrovinsky
    •  & M. Hanfland

  • News & Views |

    The Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa contains extraordinary amounts of gold. Thermodynamic calculations suggest that the gold may have accumulated there in response to a perfect storm of conditions available only during the Archaean.

    • Fabrice Gaillard
    •  & Yoann Copard

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