Solid Earth sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The hazards of pyroclastic surges remain poorly mitigated globally. Here, the authors show that their destructiveness is amplified by turbulent excursions of dynamic pressure energy that focusses inside the largest eddies and internal gravity waves.

    • Ermanno Brosch
    • , Gert Lube
    •  & Luke Fullard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical heterogeneities in Apollo sample 76535 constrain the magmatic cooling history of the lunar Mg-suite to <~ 20 My. Such rapid cooling is inconsistent with a large intrusive magma body and suggests formation by reactive melt infiltration.

    • William S. Nelson
    • , Julia E. Hammer
    •  & G. Jeffrey Taylor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The timing and nature of the first plate tectonic processes on Earth is disputed. Here the authors present a seismic reflection image of a suture zone that extends to 60 km depth beneath the ancient Yilgarn region of western Australia, suggesting that plate subduction occurred as early as 2.8 billion years ago

    • Andrew J. Calvert
    • , Michael P. Doublier
    •  & Samantha E. Sellars

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ultimate driver of ultraslow spreading ridges is unknown. Here the authors use spreading rates derived directly from isotopic ages of seafloor samples to link magmatic and amagmatic segments with thermochemical variations in the upper mantle.

    • John M. O’Connor
    • , Wilfried Jokat
    •  & Anthony A. P. Koppers

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    New observations of volcanic and magmatic activity in Africa are changing our views of continental rifting and raising awareness of the associated hazards. However, despite a shift from crisis response to reducing disaster risks, limited capacity means mitigating geohazards remains challenging.

    • Juliet Biggs
    • , Atalay Ayele
    •  & Tim J. Wright

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The threat posed by erosive-landslides is directly linked to their mobility. Here, the authors propose a mechanical model for the energy budget of erosive-landslides that controls their enhanced or reduced mobility.

    • Shiva P. Pudasaini
    •  & Michael Krautblatter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    We invert Rayleigh wave ellipticity curves extracted from ambient seismic vibrations at the InSight landing site to resolve, for the first time on Mars, the shallow subsurface to around 200 m depth. While our seismic velocity model is largely consistent with the expected stacks of lava flows, we find a seismic low velocity zone at about 30 to 75 m depth that we interpret as a sedimentary layer sandwiched between layers of basalt flows.

    • M. Hobiger
    • , M. Hallo
    •  & W. B. Banerdt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extremely fine-grained fault rocks are intrinsically weak and behave as fluids even at low temperatures and fast deformation rates. Local production of fine-grained material during fault movement can lead to an earthquake instability.

    • Hongyu Sun
    •  & Matej Pec

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sand spikes, sandstone bodies that have been enigmatic for nearly two centuries, represent a new type of seismite and a promising tool to identify strong impact-induced or tectonic paleo-earthquakes and their source regions in the geologic record.

    • Elmar Buchner
    • , Volker J. Sach
    •  & Martin Schmieder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deep fluids inside volcanoes disrupt the oscillations of signals produced by wind and sea. Imaging this disruption through space and time allows tracking hazardous fluid migrations leading to earthquakes before they reach the surface.

    • S. Petrosino
    •  & L. De Siena

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Experiments show that when magma heats black shale wall-rock, fluids form and mobilize S and Cu, which can then concentrate and form base metal deposits. The fluids also attach to sulphide droplets and cause them to float in the host silicate melt.

    • Ville J. Virtanen
    • , Jussi S. Heinonen
    •  & Karina Moslova

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nature of the lower crust and the crust-mantle transition is fundamental to Earth Sciences. Here, the authors provide evidence for long-lasting presence of lower crustal eclogite below the seismic Moho, challenging conventional models.

    • Sebastian Buntin
    • , Irina M. Artemieva
    •  & Stefan Buske

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A deep neural network is developed to automatically extract ground deformation from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar time series. Applied to data over the North Anatolian Fault, the method can detect 2 mm deformation transients and reveals a slow earthquake twice as extensive as previously recognized.

    • Bertrand Rouet-Leduc
    • , Romain Jolivet
    •  & Claudia Hulbert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of Southern Ocean gateways contributing to the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition is still debated. Here, the authors present high-resolution ocean simulations to show that gateways opening led to a reorganization of ocean circulation, heat transport and Antarctic surface water cooling.

    • Isabel Sauermilch
    • , Joanne M. Whittaker
    •  & Joseph H. LaCasce

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Middle Ordovician icehouse has been suggested to be sparked by extra-terrestrial dust associated with an asteroid break-up. Here, the authors use an astronomically calibrated timescale to decouple millennia-scale climate and biodiversity change from the meteorite shower 468.4 million years ago.

    • Jan Audun Rasmussen
    • , Nicolas Thibault
    •  & Christian Mac Ørum Rasmussen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Isotopically light oxygen in mantle derived magmas is generally attributed to the occurrence of deeply subducted crustal material in the mantle. New analyses of olivine in kimberlites worldwide suggest that assimilation of lithospheric mantle during magma ascent is the source of isotopically light oxygen in these, and, potentially other continental magmas.

    • Jing-Yao Xu
    • , Andrea Giuliani
    •  & William L. Griffin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantifying the tempo of large-volume silicic magma generation and eruption is a long-standing but elusive task. Here we show that the three largest sequentially dated eruptions, totaling >4,300 km3, occurred within 48 ± 34 kyr and yield the highest known long term volumetric extrusive rate of silicic volcanism on Earth.

    • Jennifer E. Thines
    • , Ingrid A. Ukstins
    •  & Mark Schmitz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The emplacement of the Karoo LIP occurred synchronously with the Toarcian crisis, which is characterized by negative carbon isotope excursions. Here the authors use carbon cycle modelling to show that thermogenic carbon released during LIP emplacement represents a plausible source for the negative excursions.

    • Thea H. Heimdal
    • , Yves Goddéris
    •  & Henrik H. Svensen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How far back in time plate tectonics operated on Earth is debated because of a paucity of geological evidence for horizontal plate motions. Here the authors show that plates moved laterally by >3500 kilometres 2.7–2.5 billion years ago, demonstrating plate tectonics in the Archean Eon, when life developed on Earth.

    • Yating Zhong
    • , Timothy Kusky
    •  & Hao Deng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How the subducted oceanic lithosphere provides fluids and melts to flux the subarc mantle source of arc magmas is controversial. Here the authors use Mo and other isotopes to show serpentinites formed in both the forearc mantle and the subducted lithosphere contribute to generating arc magmas.

    • Hong-Yan Li
    • , Rui-Peng Zhao
    •  & Yi-Gang Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Platinum group elements are used as tracers for planetary and PGE sulfide deposit formation. Here, the authors, through the measurements of Pt and Pd partition coefficients between sulfide liquid and basaltic melt, demonstrate that the partitioning of Pt and Pd does not obey Henry’s law.

    • Mingdong Zhang
    •  & Yuan Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Probabilistic tsunami forecasting (PTF) defines an approach to tsunami early warning based on uncertainty quantification, enhancing forecast accuracy and enabling rational decision making. PTF is here developed for near-source tsunami warning, and tested in hindcasting mode over a wide range of past earthquakes.

    • J. Selva
    • , S. Lorito
    •  & A. Amato

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In ultraslow-spreading ridges intermittent detachment faulting could contribute to discontinuous magmatic accretion supporting the development of massive sulfide deposits. Here the authors using a multi-scale magnetic survey of the Southwest Indian Ridge constrain that an episode of detachment faulting took place 0.7-1.48 Ma, with the present fault active since 0.33 Ma.

    • Tao Wu
    • , Maurice A. Tivey
    •  & Yunlong Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Repetitive shallow resonances provide a pathway to unravelling episodic magma transport deep in the magma plumbing system. Episodic deformation of ~1 nanoradian over ~100 s beneath Aso volcano potentially provides a link between long-term volcanic output and short-term eruption dynamics.

    • Jieming Niu
    •  & Teh-Ru Alex Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global climate changes triggered by massive output of greenhouse gases led to mass extinctions in Earth’s past. Here, the authors show that widespread release of methane at the time of the end-Triassic mass extinction was caused by interaction of a Large Igneous Province with sedimentary host-rocks.

    • Manfredo Capriolo
    • , Andrea Marzoli
    •  & Csaba Szabó

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Harmful algal and bacterial blooms are increasingly frequent in lakes and rivers. From the Sydney Basin, Australia, this study uses fossil, sedimentary and geochemical data to reveal bloom events following forest ecosystem collapse during the end-Permian event and that blooms have consistently followed warming-related extinction events, inhibiting the recovery of freshwater ecosystems for millennia.

    • Chris Mays
    • , Stephen McLoughlin
    •  & Vivi Vajda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemically variable primitive basalts undergo mixing during ascent from the mantle. Here the authors show observations from magma–magma reaction experiments which demonstrate how isothermal mixing between chemically variable basalts creates and modifies crystal cargoes erupted in oceanic settings.

    • David A. Neave
    • , Philipp Beckmann
    •  & François Holtz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low-frequency earthquakes are a series of small earthquakes with lower dominant frequencies than ordinary earthquakes. By comparing the simulated earthquakes with the real data, we find that low-frequency earthquakes represent an earthquake rupture process that arrests spontaneously.

    • Xueting Wei
    • , Jiankuan Xu
    •  & Xiaofei Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Paleocene–Eocene boundary coincided with runaway global warming possibly analogous to future climate change, but the sources of greenhouse gasses have remained unresolved. Here, the authors reveal volcanism triggered initial warming, and subsequent carbon was released after crossing a tipping point.

    • Sev Kender
    • , Kara Bogus
    •  & Melanie J. Leng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Episodic magmatism of the early Andes is the result of a complex interplay between mantle, crust, slab and sediment contributions that can be traced using zircon chemistry. An external (tectonic) model is argued for the episodic plutonism in this extensional continental arc.

    • José Joaquín Jara
    • , Fernando Barra
    •  & Diego Morata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How climate change influences the lifecycle of stratospheric volcanic aerosols and the associated radiative forcing is unknown. Here, the authors present model experiments suggesting that climate change amplifies the forcing of large-magnitude tropical eruptions but reduces the forcing of moderate-magnitude tropical eruptions.

    • Thomas J. Aubry
    • , John Staunton-Sykes
    •  & Anja Schmidt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The 2013 Castor seismic sequence, offshore Spain, is a rare example of seismicity induced by gas storage operations. Here we show that early seismicity marked the progressive failure of a fault in response to pore pressure diffusion, while later larger earthquakes resulted by the failure of loaded asperities.

    • Simone Cesca
    • , Daniel Stich
    •  & William L. Ellsworth

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    A new generation of earthquake catalogs developed through supervised machine-learning illuminates earthquake activity with unprecedented detail. Application of unsupervised machine learning to analyze the more complete expression of seismicity in these catalogs may be the fastest route to improving earthquake forecasting.

    • Gregory C. Beroza
    • , Margarita Segou
    •  & S. Mostafa Mousavi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    We discover a pervasive subduction influence in the Arctic, Atlantic and Indian mantle, which is nearly absent in the Pacific mantle. Such a hemispheric-scale upper mantle heterogeneity reflects the control of a “subduction shield” that has surrounded the Pacific Ocean for 180 Myr.

    • A. Y. Yang
    • , C. H. Langmuir
    •  & Z. Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The relative role of individual forcing events in long-term landscape evolution is challenging to measure in the field. Badlands offer special opportunities to quantify common, natural landscape dynamics on observational time scales.

    • Ci-Jian Yang
    • , Jens M. Turowski
    •  & Kuo-Jen Chang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Experiments and buoyancy calculations reveal that subduction of limestone results in massive carbon storage in arc lithosphere, forming an important carbon reservoir in convergent margins. Remobilization of this carbon reservoir during arc magma ascent may dominate carbon emissions at volcanic arcs.

    • Chunfei Chen
    • , Michael W. Förster
    •  & Yongsheng Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This paper reveals that potassic alteration can be triggered by Na-rich fluids, indicating that pervasive sequential sodic and potassic alterations associated with mineralization in some of the world’s largest ore deposits may not necessarily reflect externally-driven changes in fluid alkali contents.

    • Gan Duan
    • , Rahul Ram
    •  & Joël Brugger

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