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Open Access
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Where I Work |
Acid test: why the chemistry of this unique crater lake matters
Hanik Humaida monitors the activity of Indonesia’s volcanoes to help protect the public.
- James Mitchell Crow
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Article |
Mid-ocean ridge unfaulting revealed by magmatic intrusions
Recent sequences of reverse-faulting earthquakes at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Carlsberg Ridge show that tectonic extension at mid-ocean ridge axes can be partially undone by tectonic shortening across the ridge flanks.
- Jean-Arthur Olive
- , Göran Ekström
- & Manon Bickert
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News & Views |
The biologist who built a Faraday cage for a crab
What every biologist should know about electronics, plus a disturbing outbreak of volcanism in North Carolina, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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News |
Taiwan hit by biggest earthquake in 25 years: why scientists weren’t surprised
A complex network of faults lies in the area that experienced the earthquake, and more shocks are expected.
- Gemma Conroy
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News & Views Forum |
Melting ice solves leap-second problem — for now
Humans’ effect on the polar ice sheets is slowing Earth’s rotation, posing challenges for its alignment with the official time standard. Two researchers discuss the science behind the slowdown and the impact it has on timekeeping.
- Patrizia Tavella
- & Jerry X. Mitrovica
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News |
Climate change has slowed Earth’s rotation — and could affect how we keep time
The effect of melting polar ice could delay the need for a ‘leap second’ by three years.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Article |
A global timekeeping problem postponed by global warming
Increased melting of ice in Greenland and Antarctica, measured by satellite gravity, has decreased the angular velocity of Earth more rapidly than before and has already affected global timekeeping.
- Duncan Carr Agnew
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Correspondence |
The ‘Anthropocene’ is here to stay — and it’s better not as a geological epoch
- Thomas P. Roland
- , Graeme T. Swindles
- & Alastair Ruffell
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Where I Work |
I peer into volcanoes to see when they’ll blow
Mariton Antonia Bornas runs a Filipino volcano research and response organization.
- Margaret Simons
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Editorial |
Are we in the Anthropocene yet?
Measurement matters, but should not detract from the reality that humans are altering Earth systems.
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News |
It’s final: the Anthropocene is not an epoch, despite protest over vote
Governing body upholds earlier decision by geoscientists amid drama.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article |
Adaptive foraging behaviours in the Horn of Africa during Toba supereruption
The archaeological site Shinfa-Metema 1 in the lowlands of northwest Ethiopia provides early evidence of intensive riverine-based foraging aided by the likely adoption of the bow and arrow.
- John Kappelman
- , Lawrence C. Todd
- & Sierra Yanny
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News |
Ditching ‘Anthropocene’: why ecologists say the term still matters
Beyond stratigraphic definitions, the name has broader significance for understanding humans’ place on Earth.
- David Adam
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News |
Geologists reject the Anthropocene as Earth’s new epoch — after 15 years of debate
But some are now challenging the vote, saying there were ‘procedural irregularities’.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article
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Disappearing cities on US coasts
High-resolution vertical land motion and elevation datasets combined with projections of sea-level rise of 32 major US coastal cities shows that a considerable amount of land area, population, and properties are threatened by relative sea-level rise by 2050.
- Leonard O. Ohenhen
- , Manoochehr Shirzaei
- & Robert J. Nicholls
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Article |
East-to-west human dispersal into Europe 1.4 million years ago
Burial-dating methods using cosmogenic nuclides indicate that the oldest stone tools at Korolevo archaeological site in western Ukraine date to around 1.4 million years ago, providing evidence of early human dispersal into Europe from the east.
- R. Garba
- , V. Usyk
- & J. D. Jansen
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News & Views |
From the archive: New Mexico’s prehistoric pottery, and traces of the Ice Age
Snippets from Nature’s past.
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Where I Work |
I look for the mineral equivalent of tree rings
Yang Li’s research has developed a high-precision chronology of rocks.
- Virginia Gewin
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Research Highlight |
Submerged volcano’s eruption was the biggest since the last ice age
Some 7,300 years ago, the Kikai volcano in Japan produced up to 457 cubic kilometres of ash and other debris.
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News |
Buried microplastics complicate efforts to define the Anthropocene
Plastic particles in sediments could help to pin down the start of a new geological epoch. But their ability to migrate to older layers is muddying the waters.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News Feature |
Santorini’s volcanic past: underwater clues reveal giant prehistoric eruption
An expedition that drilled into the sea floor near the famous Greek island found signs of a gargantuan blast 520,000 years ago and more recent eruptions.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
The world has warmed 1.5 °C, according to 300-year-old sponges
By the time that official temperature records began, global temperatures had already risen by half a degree.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Nature Podcast |
Ancient DNA solves the mystery of who made a set of stone tools
Analysis of stone tools and DNA reveals when modern humans reached northern Europe, and why human brain cells grow so slowly.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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Research Highlight |
A mysterious mountain range lacks roots but still stands tall
Scientists puzzled over the height of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range in Colombia find that its supporting crust dripped away over time.
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Nature Podcast |
Toxic red mud could be turned into ‘green’ steel
Researchers extract useful metal from industrial waste, and how analysis of blood proteins could help unravel the mystery of long COVID.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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News |
In pictures: lava flows into Icelandic town during volcanic eruption
The latest outburst sent molten rock into the port town of Grindavík, igniting homes.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Explainer |
Japan earthquakes: the science behind the deadly tremors
A massive quake that triggered tsunamis, fires and multiple aftershocks was the largest on the country’s west coast in more than a century.
- Gemma Conroy
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Research Highlight |
A tale of Silk Road violence as told by a lake’s mud
Soot and other remnants of fires record ancient warfare along the storied trade route.
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News |
Scientists drilled through 500 metres of Greenland’s ice — here’s what they found at the bottom
Bedrock extracted from beneath the island’s frozen covering offers hints of the ice sheet’s past and future.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Korean lunar mission provides a view into the Moon’s dark spaces
South Korea’s first trip to the Moon has been labelled a success.
- Alexandra Witze
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Article
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Landscape dynamics and the Phanerozoic diversification of the biosphere
A model of sediment flux from the land to the oceans over the Phanerozoic eon explains differences in the fossil records of marine animal genera and land plant genera.
- Tristan Salles
- , Laurent Husson
- & Beatriz Hadler Boggiani
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News |
Iceland braces for volcanic eruption: what scientists are watching
Researchers are tracking every aspect of the geological unrest, which began last month.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Strange blobs in Earth’s mantle are relics of a massive collision
Impact with a body called Theia 4.5 billion years ago left remnants deep inside Earth — and also created the Moon.
- Anil Oza
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Article |
Moon-forming impactor as a source of Earth’s basal mantle anomalies
Computer simulations show that mantle material from Theia, a proto-planet theorized to have struck the proto-Earth in the Moon-forming giant impact, may be the source of Earth’s basal mantle anomalies.
- Qian Yuan
- , Mingming Li
- & Paul D. Asimow
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Where I Work |
‘Ash was falling like rain’: how I became a volcanologist
Richard Robertson monitors seismic activity across the Lesser Antilles islands in the Caribbean.
- Nicola Jones
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News |
Did dust from the Chicxulub asteroid impact kill the dinosaurs?
Fine particles kicked up by the collision could have blocked out the Sun for years, resulting in global cooling and disastrous consequences for ecosystems.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News |
Mars has a surprise layer of molten rock inside
Fresh investigations find that the red planet’s liquid-metal core is smaller than scientists thought.
- Alexandra Witze
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News & Views |
Deep Mars is surprisingly soft
Two analyses of seismic waves that traversed Mars paint the clearest picture yet of the red planet’s core and deep mantle — and rationalize the puzzling implications of a previous interpretation of the seismological data.
- Suzan van der Lee
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Article
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Evidence for a liquid silicate layer atop the Martian core
Using multiply diffracted P waves and first-principles computations of the thermoelastic properties of liquid iron-rich alloys, we show that the core of Mars is smaller and denser than previously thought.
- A. Khan
- , D. Huang
- & M. Murakami
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Geophysical evidence for an enriched molten silicate layer above Mars’s core
We provide observational evidence that suggests the presence of a molten silicate layer above the core of Mars, which is overlain by a partially molten layer, indicating that the core of Mars is smaller than previously thought.
- Henri Samuel
- , Mélanie Drilleau
- & William B. Banerdt
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Article
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Sublithospheric diamond ages and the supercontinent cycle
The ages and geochemical compositions of inclusions of sublithospheric diamonds indicate additions to the mantle keel of Gondwana by the underplating of buoyant subducted material, originating from 300–700-km depth, which may have contributed to supercontinent stability during long-distance migration.
- Suzette Timmerman
- , Thomas Stachel
- & D. Graham Pearson
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Article |
Highest terrestrial 3He/4He credibly from the core
Olivines from Baffin Island lavas have the highest magmatic 3He/4He ratio measured so far in terrestrial igneous rocks, indicating that the helium in these lavas might derive from Earth’s core.
- F. Horton
- , P. D. Asimow
- & X. M. Boyes
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News |
AI reads text from ancient Herculaneum scroll for the first time
Machine-learning technique reveals Greek words in CT scans of rolled-up papyrus.
- Jo Marchant
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Nature Index |
Three scientists on the front line of climate and conservation research
By bearing firsthand witness to how the climate crisis is affecting life and livelihoods, their fieldwork directly informs policy to protect vulnerable sites.
- Sandy Ong
- & Andy Tay
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Obituary |
W. Jason Morgan, discoverer of plate tectonics (1935–2023)
Geophysicist who showed how segments of Earth’s crust move.
- Lawrence M. Cathles
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Article |
Earth’s early continental crust formed from wet and oxidizing arc magmas
The use of two zircon oxybarometers to simultaneously determine fO2 and H2O contents shows that Archaean granitoids were mostly formed from relatively oxidizing and H2O-rich magmas, probably at ancient subduction zones.
- Rong-Feng Ge
- , Simon A. Wilde
- & Xiao-Lei Wang
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Career Feature |
Research at the intersection of ‘human rage and nature’s fury’
Geochemist Charles Balagizi monitors water safety and volcanic activity in a region where violence is common. The deaths of colleagues means he never assumes an area is safe.
- Shihab Jamal
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News |
This is what Earth’s continents will look like in 250 million years
Only a fraction of the planet’s surface will be habitable to mammals when the next supercontinent, Pangaea Ultima, forms.
- Jonathan O'Callaghan
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Article
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Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago
Wooden artefacts from waterlogged deposits in Zambia dating back 477 ka indicate hitherto unknown sophistication in woodworking at an early date.
- L. Barham
- , G. A. T. Duller
- & P. Nkombwe
Seismological evidence for a multifault network at the subduction interface