Solid Earth sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intraplate earthquakes occur far from tectonic plate boundaries and so it is vital to understand how and where they may happen. Here, Levandowskiet al. create a 3D density map of the North America Great Plains showing that gravitational forces play a controlling role in intraplate earthquake locations.

    • Will Levandowski
    • , Mark Zellman
    •  & Rich Briggs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear why atmospheric O2 remained at low levels for >1.5 billion years following the Great Oxidation Event. Here, the authors show that tectonic recycling of previously accumulated sedimentary organic carbon, and oxygen sensitivity of its oxidative weathering stabilized O2at ∼1–10% of present levels.

    • Stuart J. Daines
    • , Benjamin J. W. Mills
    •  & Timothy M. Lenton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is growing evidence for the presence of continental fragments within the young oceanic basins, but this is still based on limited geological data. Here, the authors use zircon isotope geochronology to demonstrate the presence of Archaean continental crust beneath the young hotspot volcanoes of Mauritius.

    • Lewis D. Ashwal
    • , Michael Wiedenbeck
    •  & Trond H. Torsvik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microstructural features of deformed rocks are used to reveal deformation stresses and temperatures. Here, the authors conduct experiments showing that misleading microstructures form during fluid-mediated mineral reactions under static conditions, and propose new criteria for microstructure identification.

    • Liene Spruzeniece
    • , Sandra Piazolo
    •  & Helen E. Maynard-Casely

  • 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

    Trapped mineral inclusions in diamonds give information on diamond crystallization and ages, under the assumption that they are syngenetic (formed simultaneously). Here, the authors show evidence that many mineral inclusions are protogenetic (formed at different times) thus undermining previous diamond ages.

    • Fabrizio Nestola
    • , Haemyeong Jung
    •  & Lawrence A. Taylor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The high amount of L-type chondrites discovered in Ordovician sediments has previously been linked with the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. But here, Lindskoget al. present new zircon ages that date the chondrite dispersion to 468.0±0.3 Ma, showing that the two events may be unrelated.

    • A. Lindskog
    • , M. M. Costa
    •  & M. E. Eriksson

  • 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

    The Perm anomaly is found in the lower mantle beneath Eurasia, but how this structure formed has remained unclear. Here, the authors show that the anomaly has been mobile since it formed in isolation within a closed subduction network and propose that the anomaly is linked to the Emeishan volcanics.

    • N. Flament
    • , S. Williams
    •  & D. J. Bower

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Melting dynamics are affected by the amount of carbon in the Earth’s mantle. Le Voyeret al. report undegassed carbon concentrations from olivine-hosted melt inclusions from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge finding that carbon content varies by two orders of magnitude thus introducing heterogeneity into the upper mantle.

    • M. Le Voyer
    • , K.A. Kelley
    •  & E.H. Hauri

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Earth’s core has lower density than pure iron and many studies have looked into which light elements may be present. The authors here carry outin situhigh pressure and temperature neutron experiments indicating that hydrogen may have been the first light element to dissolve into the iron core.

    • Riko Iizuka-Oku
    • , Takehiko Yagi
    •  & Asami Sano-Furukawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake slip occurred on the shallowest part of the megathrust, but the nature of the shallow slip has been poorly constrained. Here, the authors model bathymetry differences before and after the earthquake to determine that the slip exceeded 60 m increasing towards the trench.

    • Tianhaozhe Sun
    • , Kelin Wang
    •  & Jiangheng He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Satellite observations are an important tool in volcano monitoring, but observations such as ground deformation and gas emissions are treated independently. Here, the authors present a model coupling them through their link to magma volatile contents and storage depths prior to eruption

    • Brendan McCormick Kilbride
    • , Marie Edmonds
    •  & Juliet Biggs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magmas may migrate through hydrothermal fluids, but magma-hydrothermal interactions are poorly understood. Here, Chiodini et al. use physical and volatile models showing that at a critical degassing pressure the release of magmatic gases can heat hydrothermal fluids triggering deformation leading to eruption.

    • Giovanni Chiodini
    • , Antonio Paonita
    •  & Jean Vandemeulebrouck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) in megathrusts are due to weak shear strength and high fluid pressure, but controls on LFE location remain unclear. Nakajima and Hasegawa show that LFE occurrence is limited to beneath unmetamorphosed undrained portions of the overlying plate.

    • Junichi Nakajima
    •  & Akira Hasegawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During subduction, fluids are released into the mantle wedge, but the exact compositions of these fluids are unclear. Ponset al. by analysing zinc isotopes from serpentinite provide evidence that oxidized, sulphate rich fluids are released to the mantle wedge during subduction.

    • Marie-Laure Pons
    • , Baptiste Debret
    •  & Helen Williams

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magmatic intrusions are thought to precede volcanic eruptions. However, Castro et al. present evidence that a laccolith was emplaced during the 2011 rhyolitic eruption of Cordón Caulle showing that eruptions may force the intrusion of magma into the shallow crust posing an unrecognized volcanic hazard.

    • Jonathan M. Castro
    • , Benoit Cordonnier
    •  & Yves Feisel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    As shale and tight gas basins are increasingly used to extract natural gas, understanding how gas migrates is important. Wood and Sanei find that secondary migration in a tight-gas basin leads to up-dip transmission of enriched methane into surficial strata which may leak into groundwater and the atmosphere.

    • James M. Wood
    •  & Hamed Sanei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earthquakes have been theorised to produce gravity signals that may arrive before seismic waves, but until now they had not been detected. Montagneret al. have detected prompt gravity signals from the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake thus allowing an early warning of earthquakes before seismic wave arrival.

    • Jean-Paul Montagner
    • , Kévin Juhel
    •  & Philippe Lognonné

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding when brittle rock faulting took place can help unravel the history of deformation in the Earth’s crust. The authors here develop a new approach to date faults using a combination of K-Ar isotopic dating of illite and structural analysis to provide high resolution dates of the faults.

    • G. Viola
    • , T. Scheiber
    •  & J. Knies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Large igneous intrusions layering is thought to represent an upward-aggrading crystal pile. However, Mungallet al.show that the Rustenburg Layered Suite of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa was created by the injection of a series of thin sheet-like intrusions that cooled and solidified as separate bodies.

    • James E. Mungall
    • , Sandra L. Kamo
    •  & Stewart McQuade

  • 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

    Large igneous provinces may record pulses mantle plume upwellings and their relationship with deep-rooted mantle sources. Madrigal et al. present a new petrological model of the Pacific Ocean Large Igneous Province finding that mantle plume pulses were separated by 10–20 Ma.

    • Pilar Madrigal
    • , Esteban Gazel
    •  & Brian Jicha

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Bronze Age eruption of Santorini is known to have generated tsunamis with caldera collapse as the likely mechanism. However, new bathymetric and seismic data presented by Nomikou et al. show that the entry of pyroclastic flows into the sea is the most likely tsunami-generating mechanism at Santorini.

    • P. Nomikou
    • , T. H. Druitt
    •  & M. M. Parks

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mount St Helens is the most active volcano in the Cascades but is located 50 km west of the arc axis. Hansen et al. use high resolution seismic data to image a boundary in Moho reflectivity beneath St Helens implying a serpentinized mantle wedge and a melt source region that lies to the east towards Mount Adams.

    • S. M. Hansen
    • , B. Schmandt
    •  & K. C. Creager

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Precambrian rocks host a deep hydrosphere, but where dissolved sulfate, crucial for microbial life, comes from is unclear. At 2.4 km depth in the Canadian shield, Li et al. find that oxidation of sulfides in the host rocks creates sulfate thus providing a long-term mechanism for the deep biosphere sulfate.

    • L. Li
    • , B. A. Wing
    •  & B. Sherwood Lollar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Large methane hydrates reserves are found in mud volcanoes, but climate change may lead to methane release. Here, the authors show that methane adsorption creates overpressures leading to rapid recirculation of seawater, thus reducing the melting timescales of methane hydrates from millennia to decades.

    • Silvana S. S. Cardoso
    •  & Julyan H. E. Cartwright

  • 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

    Our understanding of melt production during early continental breakup remains poorly constrained. Using the Afar triple junction as an example, Gallacher et al. generate a 3D velocity model suggesting that melt production is highest during early continental breakup due to localised thinning of the crust.

    • Ryan J. Gallacher
    • , Derek Keir
    •  & Abdulhakim Ahmed

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Past volcanic eruptions along the densely populated Ethiopian Rift valley remain poorly constrained despite the present day hazard. Hutchison et al. show that a large volcanic flare up along a 200 km section of the rift occurred between 320–170 ka dramatically affecting the landscape and hominin population.

    • William Hutchison
    • , Raffaella Fusillo
    •  & Andrew T. Calvert

  • 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

    Zoned crystals may reflect magma chamber dynamics, where changes in temperature, pressure and timescale before volcanic eruption may be measured. Petrone et al. develop a new Non-Isothermal Diffusion Incremental Step model to reconstruct crystal lifetime histories to constrain pre-eruptive magmatic processes.

    • Chiara Maria Petrone
    • , Giuseppe Bugatti
    •  & Simone Tommasini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Small repeating earthquakes can be used to understand fault properties such as friction. Here, Lui et al. model the interaction between repeating earthquakes and find that postseismic creep dominates as the mechanism, which may help constrain the frictional properties of creeping fault segments.

    • Semechah K. Y. Lui
    •  & Nadia Lapusta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reconstructing biodiversity trends in deep time is confounded by uneven sampling of the available fossil record. Here the authors apply a subsampling approach to a tetrapod fossil occurrence dataset and show extinction of important clades was driven by variation in sea level.

    • Jonathan P. Tennant
    • , Philip D. Mannion
    •  & Paul Upchurch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plate subduction initiation requires weak boundaries between tectonic plates, but how weaknesses develop is unclear. Here, using high-pressure friction experiments on peridotite gouge material, the authors show that hydration reactions contribute to the weak mantle shear zones leading to subduction initiation.

    • Ken-ichi Hirauchi
    • , Kumi Fukushima
    •  & Atsushi Okamoto

  • 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

    Deformation at divergent plate boundaries during rifting events is rarely observed and therefore poorly constrained. Ruch et al. show evidence of an oblique rift opening at the Bárðarbunga caldera, Iceland, which was one of the largest basaltic eruptions observed in the last 200 years

    • Joël Ruch
    • , Teng Wang
    •  & Sigurjón Jónsson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The onset of modern central Asian atmospheric circulation is often linked to the interplay of late Cenozoic paleogeographic changes and global cooling. Here the authors present sedimentary provenance data from early Cenozoic dust deposits, which indicate long-term stability of the central Asian high pressure system.

    • A. Licht
    • , G. Dupont-Nivet
    •  & D. Giesler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Weakly coupled subduction zones may generate earthquakes that lead to tsunamis, but their structure and seismicity are poorly constrained with the Ryukyu subduction zone as one such example. Here, Arai et al. present seismological evidence from Ryukyu showing megathrust faults and low frequency earthquakes.

    • Ryuta Arai
    • , Tsutomu Takahashi
    •  & Yoshiyuki Kaneda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Ilopango caldera, El Salvador has had a number of large explosive eruptions, but its magmatic plumbing system is unclear. Here, Saxby et al. image a strike-slip faulted low-density structure under the caldera and interpret it as a gas-charged magmatic reservoir beneath a shallow hydrothermal system.

    • J. Saxby
    • , J. Gottsmann
    •  & E. Gutiérrez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Toba Caldera is the site of the largest Pleistocene eruption at 74,000 years ago, yet the magmatic plumbing system remains poorly understood. Here, Koulakov et al. present a new seismic tomography model highlighting a complex multilevel plumbing magmatic system under Toba.

    • Ivan Koulakov
    • , Ekaterina Kasatkina
    •  & Sergey Smirnov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oceanic anoxia is invoked for driving the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction, but the timing, distribution and chemical state are poorly understood. Here, the authors show that fluctuations of anoxic, non-sulfidic (ferruginous) conditions were important for the delayed biotic recovery in the Neo-Tethys.

    • M. O. Clarkson
    • , R. A. Wood
    •  & L. Krystyn

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