Geology articles within Nature Geoscience

Featured

  • Article |

    Formation of mass-independent isotope fractionation of sulfur signatures recorded in Archaean sedimentary rocks could have occurred in an oxygen-rich atmosphere, according to thermodynamic and kinetic calculations and analysis of Earth’s early sulfur cycle.

    • Hiroshi Ohmoto

  • Article |

    Long-term Himalayan erosion rates remained stable through the global climatic changes of the past six million years, according to the cosmogenic nuclide composition of terrestrial sediments recovered from the Bay of Bengal.

    • Sebastien J. P. Lenard
    • , Jérôme Lavé
    •  & Karim Keddadouche

  • Article |

    The oceans probably remained well-oxygenated for millions of years after the Palaeoproterozoic Lomagundi–Jatuli Event, according to high concentrations and isotope signatures of redox-sensitive metals in the 2-billion-year-old Zaonega Formation, Russia.

    • Kaarel Mänd
    • , Stefan V. Lalonde
    •  & Kurt O. Konhauser

  • Editorial |

    Mineral extraction will play an important role in climate change mitigation and green technologies. But ensuring that the net effect of mining is beneficial requires careful monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts.

  • News & Views |

    Differential cycling of carbonate and organic carbon in the mantle may link the Great Oxidation Event and the subsequent increase in carbon isotope values, according to a model that links the Earth’s surface and interior.

    • Jeremy K. Caves Rugenstein

  • News & Views |

    Tectonic tremor may ultimately be caused by in situ fluid overpressure generated by chemical reactions between a subducting slab and the mantle, according to field and microstructural observations of a shear zone.

    • Kohtaro Ujiie

  • News & Views |

    The structure of the lithosphere is key to reconciling the dynamic topography predicted by mantle convection models with residual topography derived from observations, suggest analyses of both models and data.

    • Nicolas Flament

  • Article |

    Seismicity induced by wastewater injections is widespread in Oklahoma, probably because its basement is susceptible to the reactivation of basement-rooted faults, according to three-dimensional seismic analyses, rock-mechanics experiments and field surveys.

    • F. Kolawole
    • , C. S. Johnston
    •  & B. M. Carpenter

  • Article |

    The Havre Tough back-arc basin, New Zealand, formed rapidly and in two phases: initial, limited seafloor spreading was followed by a transition to arc magmatism, as shown by geophysical data and modelling.

    • Fabio Caratori Tontini
    • , Dan Bassett
    •  & Richard Wysoczanski

  • Article |

    The structure of the lithosphere and its impact on mantle flow significantly influence the impact of Earth’s interior dynamics on surface topography, suggest statistical analyses of Earth’s topography.

    • D. R. Davies
    • , A. P. Valentine
    •  & C. R. Wilson

  • News & Views |

    Subduction processes may have operated very early in Earth’s history according to the heavy silicon isotope compositions of Archaean igneous rocks. The silicon that precipitated out of the Archaean oceans as chert was subducted and melted to yield seawater-like heavy isotope signatures in early granitic rocks.

    • Franck Poitrasson

  • News & Views |

    Confidence that banded iron formations record oxic conditions during deposition is established, as a model demonstrates that they are formed of primary iron oxides rather than secondarily altered silicate minerals.

    • Eva E. Stüeken

  • Article |

    Biologically available nitrogen in the form of ammonium was abundant in the Late Archaean ocean, according to nitrogen isotope and proxy analyses on 2.7 billion year old shales from Zimbabwe.

    • J. Yang
    • , C. K. Junium
    •  & A. L. Zerkle

  • Article |

    Long-period Milankovitch eccentricity oscillations controlled compositional variations in the 2.48-billion-year-old Kuruman Banded Iron Formation, according to cyclostratigraphic analysis and high-precision dating.

    • Margriet L. Lantink
    • , Joshua H. F. L. Davies
    •  & Frederik J. Hilgen

  • Article |

    Oxidative weathering supplied a crucial flux of nutrients to the late Archaean oceans that sustained methanogenesis and kept the Archaean atmosphere in a methane sweet-spot, according to analyses of nickel isotopes from glacial deposits.

    • Shui-Jiong Wang
    • , Roberta L. Rudnick
    •  & Laura E. Wasylenki

  • News & Views |

    Extreme temperature swings and deteriorating environments are perhaps what killed most life in the end-Permian extinction, suggest climate model simulations. Siberian Traps volcanism probably triggered the events.

    • Ying Cui

  • Article |

    Earth’s oldest known felsic rocks formed by partial melting at low pressures and high temperatures caused by impact melting of mafic Hadean crust, according to phase equilibria and trace element modelling.

    • Tim E. Johnson
    • , Nicholas J. Gardiner
    •  & Hugh Smithies

  • Editorial |

    Earth’s resources may not be running out, but the planet’s capacity to cope with the resulting waste products is limited. Resource geology can no longer be the preserve of the economic, mining or petroleum geologist; sustainably providing for the world’s population requires a broader skillset.

  • Article |

    Microbial life colonized the land surface by 3.2 billion years ago, forming complex communities distinct from those in nearby marine environments, according to analyses of fossilized microbial mats in the Moodies Group, South Africa.

    • Martin Homann
    • , Pierre Sansjofre
    •  & Stefan V. Lalonde

  • News & Views |

    A regional oxygenation event 1.6 billion years ago coincided with the appearance of large fossils, but whether the availability of oxygen was the primary driver of the diversification of multicellular organisms remains to be seen.

    • Emma U. Hammarlund

  • News & Views |

    The annual quantity of metal being used by humans has been on the rise. A new analysis of 43 major economies reveals the extent to which year-to-year fluctuations in metal footprints have been in lockstep with countries’ economic growth and changes in investment spending.

    • Paul J. Burke

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