Featured
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Article |
Rules of river avulsion change downstream
A novel theoretical framework reveals how topography surrounding rivers causes dramatic changes in their courses, with implications for natural hazard prediction, particularly in the Global South.
- James H. Gearon
- , Harrison K. Martin
- & Douglas A. Edmonds
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Nature Video |
Underwater bridge gives clues to ancient human arrival
Dating mineral deposits in a flooded cave reveals that humans reached Mallorca over 5,000 years ago.
- Dan Fox
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Correspondence |
Indian landslide tragedy demands a rethink of hazard mapping in a changing climate
- S. Adarsh
- , D. S. Shamla
- & Meera G. Mohan
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Comment |
The meaning of the Anthropocene: why it matters even without a formal geological definition
Even though geologists have rejected the designation of an Anthropocene epoch, the idea of a major planetary transition in the mid-twentieth century remains useful across physical and social sciences, the humanities and policy.
- Jan Zalasiewicz
- , Julia Adeney Thomas
- & Martin J. Head
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Article
| Open Access
Highly variable magmatic accretion at the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel Ridge
Results from a high-resolution ocean-bottom seismometer experiment at the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel Ridge show unexpected highly variable crustal thickness and a relatively large average value, which can be explained by an active mantle upwelling model.
- Tao Zhang
- , Jiabiao Li
- & Jason P. Morgan
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News |
India’s pioneering mission bolsters idea that Moon’s surface was molten
First-ever analysis of soil from around the Moon’s south pole was performed using data from the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
- Michael Marshall
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News |
These labs have prepared for a big earthquake — will it be enough?
Nature asked scientists about the measures they put in place to safeguard their research in case of disaster.
- Anna Ikarashi
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News |
Dinosaur-killing Chicxulub asteroid formed in Solar System’s outer reaches
Rock samples hold clues to origin of impactor that sparked a mass extinction 66 million years ago.
- Michael Marshall
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News Feature |
Geology’s biggest mystery: when did plate tectonics start to reshape Earth?
Researchers have spent decades hunting for clues about the origins of the process that moves the continents around. Its deep history is finally starting to come into focus.
- Michael Marshall
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Nature Video |
A Scottish origin for Stonehenge's Altar Stone
Geologists have found the provenance for Stonehenge's central Altar Stone, in the Orcadian Basin in Scotland
- Emily Bates
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News |
Stonehenge’s enigmatic centre stone was hauled 800 kilometres from Scotland
By assessing the age of ancient crystals, researchers have traced the monument’s greenish Altar Stone to a northern rock basin.
- Nisha Gaind
- & Roff Smith
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Research Briefing |
Stonehenge’s central rock probably came from Scotland
The origins of the stones that make up the ancient monument Stonehenge can provide insights into the connectivity of a Neolithic society in Britain (about 4300 to 2000 bc) that otherwise left no written record. The age and chemistry of minerals from the Altar Stone provide a ‘fingerprint’ that traces its origin to sedimentary rocks in Scotland’s Orcadian Basin.
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Article
| Open Access
A Scottish provenance for the Altar Stone of Stonehenge
Mineral ages and chemical analysis of fragments of the Altar Stone from the Neolithic stone circle at Stonehenge suggest that it was transported from northeast Scotland, more than 750 km away, probably by sea.
- Anthony J. I. Clarke
- , Christopher L. Kirkland
- & Rob A. Ixer
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Nature Podcast |
The mystery of Stonehenge’s central stone unearthed
A geochemical analysis suggests that Stonehenge’s Altar Stone came from northern Scotland — plus, chemists have finally discovered how to break selenium bonds unevenly.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Dan Fox
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News |
Deepest-ever samples of rock from Earth’s mantle unveiled
Kilometre-long rock cores leave scientists wanting to know more — just when an international exploration effort is coming to an end.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Article
| Open Access
Coevolution of craton margins and interiors during continental break-up
By integrating geological observations, statistical analysis, geodynamic simulations and landscape-evolution models, a physical model is proposed to link the coevolution of craton margins and interiors with continental rifting.
- Thomas M. Gernon
- , Thea K. Hincks
- & Anne Glerum
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Article |
Deep crustal assimilation during the 2021 Fagradalsfjall Fires, Iceland
Using osmium isotopes, the 2021 Fagradalsfjall lavas in Iceland are shown to be both fractionally crystallized and strongly crustally contaminated, probably by mid-ocean-ridge gabbros and older basalts underlying the Reykjanes Peninsula.
- James M. D. Day
- , Savannah Kelly
- & Thor Thordarson
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Article |
Deep, hot, ancient melting recorded by ultralow oxygen fugacity in peridotites
Analysis of peridotites reveals ultralow oxygen fugacity, suggesting that rafts of ancient, ultrareduced mantle were generated by deep melting at high temperatures and continue to circulate in the modern mantle, although they contribute little to modern ridge volcanism.
- Suzanne K. Birner
- , Elizabeth Cottrell
- & Jessica M. Warren
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News & Views |
How mud brought France and England together — 150 years ago
Artificial daylight lacks commercial interest, and a geologist’s thirst for knowledge kickstarts the bid for the Channel Tunnel, in our weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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News & Views |
James Clerk Maxwell’s ode to bubble blowing
Curious volcanic activity confounds tourists near Naples, and Maxwell reviews a textbook on bubbles, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.
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Article
| Open Access
Inner core backtracking by seismic waveform change reversals
Matching seismic waveforms show that the inner core of Earth gradually super-rotated from 2003 to 2008, and then more slowly sub-rotated from 2008 to 2023 back through the same path.
- Wei Wang
- , John E. Vidale
- & Ruoyan Wang
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World View |
Space weather can affect our daily lives — we need a better warning system
Categorizing geomagnetic storms on a scale of one to five leaves no room for once-a-century superstorms.
- Sean Elvidge
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Article |
Fault-network geometry influences earthquake frictional behaviour
Analysis of some of the main fault zones in California shows that the presence of complex earthquake fault-network geometries results in geometric locking that promotes stick-slip behaviour, whereas simpler geometries lead to smooth fault creep.
- Jaeseok Lee
- , Victor C. Tsai
- & Daniel T. Trugman
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Article |
A late-Ediacaran crown-group sponge animal
Cross-hatch impressions from Ediacaran rocks in China are interpreted as having been left by a crown-group sponge fossil, Helicolocellus cantori gen. et sp. nov., characterized by an organic latticework skeleton.
- Xiaopeng Wang
- , Alexander G. Liu
- & Shuhai Xiao
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Article |
The time between Palaeolithic hearths
High-resolution time differences between six Middle Palaeolithic hearths from El Salt Unit x (Spain) obtained through archaeomagnetic and archaeostratigraphic analyses show sometimes decade-long intervals between hearths.
- Ángela Herrejón-Lagunilla
- , Juan José Villalaín
- & Ángel Carrancho
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News |
China’s Chang’e-6 collects first rock samples from Moon’s far side
Scientists are now hoping the spacecraft will successfully dock with its orbiter and have a safe trip home.
- Ling Xin
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News |
Found at last: long-lost branch of the Nile that ran by the pyramids
Geological survey reveals the remains of a major waterway that ancient Egyptian builders could have used to transport materials.
- Freda Kreier
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News & Views |
Did atmospheric weathering help Earth’s earliest continents to survive?
What stabilized and strengthened the oldest, most robust blocks of continental crust billions of years ago during the Archaean eon has long been a mystery. It seems that a surprise helping hand might have come from the air above.
- Claire E. Bucholz
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Article
| Open Access
Subaerial weathering drove stabilization of continents
The geological histories of Archaean regions indicate that stabilization of the Earth’s continents and the formation of cratons was driven by continental emergence and subaerial weathering.
- Jesse R. Reimink
- & Andrew J. Smye
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Correspondence |
Why it was right to reject the Anthropocene as a geological epoch
- Mark Maslin
- , Matthew Edgeworth
- & Philip L. Gibbard
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News |
China's Moon atlas is the most detailed ever made
The Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe doubles the resolution of Apollo-era maps and will support the space ambitions of China and other countries.
- Ling Xin
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Book Review |
How volcanoes shaped our planet — and why we need to be ready for the next big eruption
The world should learn from past disasters and prepare for the effects of future, inevitable volcanic catastrophes, a wide-reaching book teaches us.
- Heather Handley
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Article
| Open Access
Seismological evidence for a multifault network at the subduction interface
Using observations of double-difference relocated earthquakes in a local three-dimensional velocity model for Ecuador, a detailed image of seismicity is created, forming the base for more realistic models of earthquake rupture, slip and hazard in subduction zones.
- Caroline Chalumeau
- , Hans Agurto-Detzel
- & Audrey Galve
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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
| Open Access
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
Why Mount Everest is the world’s tallest mountain