Mineralogy articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • News & Views |

    The fate of water that enters the mantle within subducting slabs is unclear. Laboratory experiments indicate that subducted crust can transport large amounts of water into the deep Earth, and the lower mantle may become more hydrated over time.

    • Masayuki Nishi

  • News & Views |

    Aqueous subduction-zone fluids contain CO2 and methane. New calculations indicate that these fluids also host a wide array of organic carbon species, in concentrations sufficient to influence the deep carbon cycle.

    • Jay J. Ague

  • News & Views |

    In 2004, a phase transition was discovered in the most abundant lower-mantle mineral. A decade of focused experiments, computations and seismic imaging stimulated by this discovery has revealed previously unknown complexities in Earth's deep mantle.

    • Sang-Heon Shim
    •  & Thorne Lay

  • Letter |

    Giant volcanic eruptions occur when large volumes of magma accumulate in crustal reservoirs and do not cool and crystallize to form a solid pluton of rock within the crust. Geochronological dating of a pluton from Elba, Italy, shows that the magma solidified in the crust within just 10–40 thousand years of being injected into the crust, implying that the time window for an eruption was short.

    • Mélanie Barboni
    •  & Blair Schoene

  • News & Views |

    The processes responsible for the growth of Earth's first continents are enigmatic. The geochemical signature of 4-billion-year-old rocks discovered in Canada points to a key role for shallow magmatic processes above upwelling mantle rocks.

    • Anthony I. S. Kemp

  • News & Views |

    Carbon loss from subducting slabs is thought to be insufficient to balance carbon dioxide emissions at arc volcanoes. Analyses of ancient subducted rocks in Greece suggest that fluid dissolution of slab carbonate can help solve this carbon-cycle conundrum.

    • Craig E. Manning

  • Letter |

    The balance between carbonate subduction into the deep Earth and CO2 release through degassing at volcanoes is critical for the carbon cycle. Geochemical analyses of an exhumed subduction zone complex in Greece show that fluid-mediated reactions could liberate significant amounts of carbon from the subducting slab for later release at arc volcanoes.

    • Jay J. Ague
    •  & Stefan Nicolescu

  • News & Views |

    The age of the oldest Jack Hills zircons — Earth's oldest minerals — is contentious. Atomic-scale mapping of the distribution of radiogenic isotopes within a Jack Hills zircon confirms that the oldest known continental crust formed just after the Earth–Moon system.

    • Samuel Bowring

  • Letter |

    The oldest minerals on Earth are thought to have formed in the Hadean eon, but the reliability of the dates has been questioned. Atom-probe tomography of an ancient zircon confirms that the mineral formed about 4.4 billion years ago, implying that any mixing event of the silicate Earth occurred before that time.

    • John W. Valley
    • , Aaron J. Cavosie
    •  & Michael J. Spicuzza

  • Letter |

    Supervolcano eruptions dwarf all historical eruptions, but their trigger mechanisms are unclear. Experimental measurements of magma density at high pressures and temperatures show that the buoyancy of magma alone can impose sufficient pressure at the roof of a supervolcano magma chamber to induce an eruption.

    • Wim J. Malfait
    • , Rita Seifert
    •  & Carmen Sanchez-Valle

  • Letter |

    The characteristics of magmas typically associated with porphyry copper deposits are thought to be imparted in the mantle. Statistical assessment of over 40,000 geochemical analyses of magmatic rocks formed in subduction zones worldwide, however, shows that the characteristics of these magmatic rocks are systematically controlled by the thickness of the arc crust.

    • Massimo Chiaradia

  • Editorial |

    Mineral exploration is pushing new frontiers. Given a poor track record on land, mining practises should be honed on home soil before venturing into the oceans.

  • Commentary |

    Access to metals and minerals is restricted mostly by geopolitical constraints, and not by a shortage of mineable deposits. In the face of rising demand, a full inventory of these commodities — in the Earth's crust as well as in recyclable waste — is urgently required.

    • Richard Herrington

  • Commentary |

    Renewable energy requires infrastructures built with metals whose extraction requires more and more energy. More mining is unavoidable, but increased recycling, substitution and careful design of new high-tech devices will help meet the growing demand.

    • Olivier Vidal
    • , Bruno Goffé
    •  & Nicholas Arndt

  • Letter |

    The boundary between Earth’s rigid lithosphere and ductile asthenosphere is marked by a seismic discontinuity. Laboratory experiments on basaltic magmas show that melts should pond at pressures that correspond to the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary. Thus, magma ponding could explain the observed seismic discontinuity.

    • Tatsuya Sakamaki
    • , Akio Suzuki
    •  & Maxim D. Ballmer

  • Letter |

    The differentiation of the Earth into mantle and core implies that there is a mechanism to separate iron from silicates. Three-dimensional imaging of samples experimentally subjected to high pressures reveals that liquid iron forms interconnected melt networks at lower mantle conditions, suggesting pathways through which iron can percolate towards the core.

    • Crystal Y. Shi
    • , Li Zhang
    •  & Wendy L. Mao

  • Letter |

    Little is known about the structure of possible mantle materials of extra-solar super-Earths with interior pressures of up to 1,000 GPa. Dynamic X-ray diffraction measurements of ramp-compressed magnesium oxide, an important component of Earth’s mantle, show a solid–solid state transition at about 600 GPa, with a high-pressure structure that is stable up to 900 GPa.

    • F. Coppari
    • , R. F. Smith
    •  & T. S Duffy

  • News & Views |

    Phosphorus is an important element for biogeochemical development. According to a set of experiments, martian phosphate minerals dissolve more quickly than terrestrial ones, possibly providing nutrients in aqueous environments for early martian life.

    • Matthew Pasek

  • Letter |

    Phosphate is thought to be a chemical nutrient essential for life, but the low solubility of phosphate minerals means that abiogenesis on Earth had to overcome the hurdle of phosphate-limited environments. Dissolution experiments of phosphate minerals commonly found on Mars suggest that phosphate may have been more readily available in early martian environments.

    • C. T. Adcock
    • , E. M. Hausrath
    •  & P. M. Forster

  • Letter |

    Mantle minerals in faults above a subducting slab can become aligned. Laboratory analyses show that this mineral alignment can also generate direction-dependent friction that can cause faults to slip both seismically and aseismically, depending on the direction of movement.

    • Marcello Campione
    •  & Gian Carlo Capitani

  • Letter |

    The mode of carbon storage in Earth’s mantle is unclear. High-pressure laboratory experiments on mantle analogue materials reveal that significant quantities of carbon can be stored in tiny defects within the minerals, providing an efficient mechanism for carbon storage in the mantle.

    • Jun Wu
    •  & Peter R. Buseck

  • News & Views |

    Mantle flow patterns may be reconstructed from mineral orientations. Experiments show that the high-pressure mineral post-perovskite can inherit texture from its lower-pressure counterpart, suggesting new ways of interpreting flow in the deepest mantle.

    • John Hernlund

  • News & Views |

    The way in which seismic waves pass through the core suggests alignment of iron crystals within the solid inner core. Experiments indicate that iron at inner-core conditions may be weaker than thought and easily allow deformation of iron crystals.

    • Sébastien Merkel

  • Letter |

    Carbon is carried into the Earth at subduction zones. Geochemical analysis of subducted sediments now exhumed in Alpine Corsica, France, reveal the formation of graphite during shallow subduction, implying that carbonate transformation to graphite aids transport into the deeper Earth.

    • Matthieu E. Galvez
    • , Olivier Beyssac
    •  & Jacques Malavieille

  • Article |

    Hydrogen is commonly produced during the high-temperature hydration of mafic and ultramafic rocks. Laboratory experiments suggest that water–rock reactions also generate hydrogen at lower temperatures, potentially fuelling microbial life in ultramafic aquifers in oceanic and terrestrial crust.

    • L. E. Mayhew
    • , E. T. Ellison
    •  & A. S. Templeton

  • News & Views |

    Sinking slabs of oceanic lithosphere often stagnate in Earth's mantle. Experiments show that common slab minerals transform to their high-pressure, high-density counterparts at very slow rates, thus keeping the slabs buoyant and impeding subduction.

    • Craig R. Bina

  • Letter |

    Subducting slabs of oceanic lithosphere often stagnate before reaching the lower mantle. Laboratory experiments under high pressures and temperatures show that pyroxene, a common mineral in such slabs, is transformed to its dense, high-pressure counterpart, majorite garnet, at a very slow rate, temporarily keeping the slabs buoyant compared to the surrounding mantle.

    • W. L. van Mierlo
    • , F. Langenhorst
    •  & D. C. Rubie

  • News & Views |

    Gold is often deposited in Earth's crust by fluids that percolate through rock fractures. Earthquakes cause rock fractures to expand rapidly and could cause the fluids to evaporate, triggering almost instantaneous gold deposition.

    • Dave Craw

  • Letter |

    Fluids flowing through cavities in Earth’s crust can deposit gold. Thermo-mechanical modelling of a fluid-filled cavity that expands suddenly during an earthquake shows that the drop in pressure would cause the fluid to vaporize and deposit the gold almost instantaneously.

    • Dion K. Weatherley
    •  & Richard W. Henley

  • Letter |

    The nearside and farside of the Moon are compositionally distinct. The detection of low-calcium pyroxene around large impact basins suggests that the huge Procellarum basin on the nearside may be an ancient impact structure and a relic scar of the violent collision that produced the lunar dichotomy.

    • Ryosuke Nakamura
    • , Satoru Yamamoto
    •  & Kazuto Saiki

  • News & Views |

    Clay minerals on Mars have been interpreted as an indication for a warm, wet early climate. A new hypothesis proposes that the minerals instead formed during brief periods of magmatic degassing, diminishing the prospects for signs of life in these settings.

    • Brian Hynek

  • Article |

    Hydrous clay minerals detected on the ancient martian crust have been proposed to have formed by aqueous weathering on a warm, wet early Mars. However, analyses of terrestrial clay minerals and comparisons to Mars suggest that the Noachian clays could have alternatively formed by precipitation from magmatic fluids.

    • Alain Meunier
    • , Sabine Petit
    •  & Eric Ferrage

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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 |

    Volcanic activity is much more common beneath the oceans than on land, yet has been observed only rarely. Direct measurements of an eruption in the southwest Pacific Ocean reveal unexpectedly explosive activity at great depths.

    • Richard Arculus

  • 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

  • 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 |

    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 |

    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

  • News & Views |

    How the giant sediment-hosted gold deposits of Nevada were formed is disputed. A model linking regional tectonics with magma emplacement and fluid generation at depth suggests that these deposits result from an optimal coincidence of processes.

    • Jeremy P. Richards

  • Article |

    During the Eocene, profuse magmatism and hydrothermal activity in the Great Basin of western North America produced Earth’s second largest concentration of gold in Nevada. An integration of mineral analyses, experimental data and age and isotope data suggests a magmatic source for these deposits.

    • John L. Muntean
    • , Jean S. Cline
    •  & Anthony A. Longo

Browse broader subjects

Browse Mineralogy across other nature.com journals