Solid Earth sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The heat and electrical conductivity of Earth’s core matter represent key input quantities for geophysical models of the Earth’s core evolution and geodynamo. Here, the authors show how the scattering due to interactions between electrons has a relatively weak impact on the electrical and thermal conductivities of iron at core conditions.

    • L. V. Pourovskii
    • , J. Mravlje
    •  & D. Alfè

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In anoxic environments, soluble hexavalent uranium is reduced and immobilized, however, the underlying molecular-scale reduction mechanism remains unknown. Here, the authors find that U reduction can occur on the surface of magnetite via transient U nanowire structures which collapse into ordered UO2 nanoclusters, which may have implications for understanding nuclear waste evolution and remediation of uranium contamination.

    • Zezhen Pan
    • , Barbora Bártová
    •  & Rizlan Bernier-Latmani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origin of deep long-period earthquakes beneath active volcanoes that are sometimes considered as precursors to eruptions remains not fully understood. Here the authors show that these earthquakes can be generated by the rapid degassing in response to the slow decompression of magma over-saturated with H2O and CO2.

    • Oleg Melnik
    • , Vladimir Lyakhovsky
    •  & Olga Bergal-Kuvikas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Geological sources of H2 and abiotic CH4 have had a critical role in the evolution of life and sustainability of the deep subsurface biosphere, yet the origins of these sources remain largely unconstrained. Here the authors show that deep serpentinization (40–80 km) during subduction generates significant amounts of H2 and abiotic CH4, potentially providing energy to the overlying subsurface biosphere.

    • A. Vitale Brovarone
    • , D. A. Sverjensky
    •  & I. Daniel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plate tectonics necessitates mantle recycling throughout Earth’s history, yet direct geochemical evidence for mantle reprocessing remains elusive. Here, the authors present evidence of recycled supra-subduction zone mantle wedge peridotite dredged from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 16°30′N.

    • B. M. Urann
    • , H. J. B. Dick
    •  & J. F. Casey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Regions of the subducting oceanic crust are often considered to be overpressured, owing to fluid trapped beneath an impermeable seal along the overlying inter-plate boundary. Here, the authors show that slow slip earthquakes at the Cascadia subduction zone occur immediately below a 6-10 km-thick shear zone, in which slab-derived fluids are likely trapped at near-lithostatic pore pressures.

    • Andrew J. Calvert
    • , Michael G. Bostock
    •  & Martyn J. Unsworth

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicted sea-level rise is widely anticipated to lead to increased coastal erosion, however, assessing how rocky coasts will respond to changes in marine conditions is difficult to constrain. Here, the authors find that a North Yorkshire rocky cliff has been eroding at a similar rate over the last 7 kyr, and they do not observe an increase in erosion rates in response to modern sea level rise.

    • Zuzanna M. Swirad
    • , Nick J. Rosser
    •  & John Barlow

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ocean warming could enable the release of methane related to hydrate dissociation from the ocean floor, a process thought to have triggered abrupt climate changes in Earth history. Here the authors detect this process in action, observing a massive release of methane from a site in the South Atlantic Ocean.

    • Marcelo Ketzer
    • , Daniel Praeg
    •  & José A. Cupertino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study the authors show that monotonous basaltic volcanoes can host a range of melts in their sub-volcanic systems, extending to rhyolitic compositions. The study implies that volcanoes which have produced monotonous basaltic lavas on long timescales could transition to more explosive, silica-rich eruptions in the future.

    • Michael J. Stock
    • , Dennis Geist
    •  & John Maclennan

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Despite numerous advances in our understanding of subduction since the theory of plate tectonics was established, the mechanisms of subduction zone initiation remain highly controversial. Here, the authors present a transdisciplinary and expandable community database of subduction zone initiation events in the last 100 Ma, which establishes a clear direction for future research.

    • Fabio Crameri
    • , Valentina Magni
    •  & Marcel Thielmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Trace amounts of water dissolved in minerals play an important role in global tectonics through changing the density, viscosity and melting behaviour of the Earth’s mantle. Here, the authors identify the presence of molecular hydrogen in nominally anhydrous ecolgite minerals from the Kaapvaal and Siberian cratons, indicating that the storage capacity of H in the mantle may have been underestimated.

    • B. N. Moine
    • , N. Bolfan-Casanova
    •  & J. Y. Cottin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How Earth’s lithosphere first divided into tectonic plates remains uncertain. Here, the authors use 3D spherical shell models to demonstrate that anticipated warming of the early lithosphere should lead to thermal expansion and the initiation of a global network of rifts, dividing the lithosphere into tectonic plates.

    • C. A. Tang
    • , A. A. G. Webb
    •  & T. T. Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, the authors investigate the predictability of sudden eruptions, motivated by the 2019 eruption at Whakaari (White Island), New Zealand. The paper proposes a machine learning approach that is able to identify eruption precursors in data streaming from a single seismic station at Whakaari.

    • D. E. Dempsey
    • , S. J. Cronin
    •  & A. W. Kempa-Liehr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province is the most aerially extensive magmatic event in Earth’s history, yet few constraints exist on the volumes of intrusions at depth. Here, the authors find limited intrusive volumes beneath the South Georgia Rift, consistent with modest potential mantle temperatures (<1500 °C) related to syn-rift decompression melting.

    • R. E. Marzen
    • , D. J. Shillington
    •  & S. H. Harder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermal conductivity of Earth’s core affects Earth’s thermal structure, evolution and dynamics. Based on thermal conductivity measurements of iron–silicon alloys at high pressure and temperature conditions, the authors here propose Earth’s inner core could be older than previously expected.

    • Wen-Pin Hsieh
    • , Alexander F. Goncharov
    •  & Jung-Fu Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The proliferation of dams since 1950 has promoted sediment deposition in reservoirs, which is thought to be starving the coast of sediment and decreasing resistance to storms and sea-level rise. Here, the authors show that century-long records of sediment mass accumulation rates and sediment accumulation rates more than doubled after 1950 in coastal depocenters around North America.

    • A. B. Rodriguez
    • , B. A. McKee
    •  & A. N. Atencio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earth surface continues to slip after large earthquakes at a slow velocity for a period of a year or more. In this study, the authors show how such slow slip before and after large earthquakes relates to the interaction of the brittle zone of the fault with the ductile zone at greater depth.

    • Giuseppe Petrillo
    • , Eugenio Lippiello
    •  & Alberto Rosso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Northeast Atlantic climate shifted into the Quaternary Ice Age around 2.6 Myr ago. Here, the authors use 3D seismic data from the northern North Sea to document detailed changes in continental-margin sedimentary architecture spanning the transition from a fluvially dominated environment to an icehouse world.

    • H. Løseth
    • , J. A. Dowdeswell
    •  & D. Ottesen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The environmental changes at the Permian–Triassic boundary are thought to have been caused primarily by volcanic eruptions. Here the authors develop a model to show that the loss of ecosystems on land and consequent massive terrestrial biomass oxidation triggered large biogeochemical changes in the oceans at the time of the marine mass extinction.

    • Jacopo Dal Corso
    • , Benjamin J. W. Mills
    •  & Paul B. Wignall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Magma storage zones are debated to either be crystal-dominated mush zones or large liquid-dominated magma chambers. Here, the authors discover fossilized solidification fronts of magnetitite in the Bushveld pluton, which indicate nucleation and crystal growth occurred at the magma chamber floor, precluding the existence of a thick crystal mush zone in this region.

    • Willem Kruger
    •  & Rais Latypov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One of the largest continental microplates on Earth is situated in the center of the East African Rift System, and oddly, the Victoria microplate rotates counterclockwise with respect to the neighboring African tectonic plate. Here, the authors' modelling results suggest that Victoria microplate rotation is caused by edge-driven lithospheric processes related to the specific geometry of rheologically weak and strong regions.

    • Anne Glerum
    • , Sascha Brune
    •  & Manfred R. Strecker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this study, Smith and colleagues employ analogue experiments to show the controlling parameters on sediment bedforms in pyroclastic density current deposits. The findings are applied and validated on natural deposits.

    • Gregory Smith
    • , Peter Rowley
    •  & Samuel Capon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Landslides are damaging natural hazards and can often lead to unexpected casualties and property damage. Here, the authors conduct geodetic and hydrological data analyses of the Slumgullion landslide, Colorado, and quantify the mass movement to find it fits a power-law flow theory and responds to hydroclimatic variability.

    • Xie Hu
    • , Roland Bürgmann
    •  & Eric J. Fielding

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The early Earth’s atmosphere had very low oxygen levels for hundreds of millions of years, until the 2.4 Ga Great Oxidation Event, which remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that reducing Archean volcanic gases could have prevented atmospheric O2 from accumulating, and therefore mantle oxidation was likely very important in setting the evolution of O2 and aerobic life.

    • Shintaro Kadoya
    • , David C. Catling
    •  & Ariel D. Anbar

  • Matters Arising
    | Open Access

    Recently, Pandey et al proposed relict subduction initiation occurred along a passive margin in the northwest Indian Ocean. Here, Clift et al question the evidence for subduction initiation, suggesting that simpler rifting-related processes can more simply explain the available data for the Laxmi Basin.

    • Peter D. Clift
    • , Gérôme Calvès
    •  & Tara N. Jonell

  • Matters Arising
    | Open Access

    Recently, Pandey et al. proposed relict subduction initiation occurred along a passive margin in the northwest Indian Ocean, however, Clift et al. questioned their evidence for subduction initiation, suggesting that simpler rifting-related processes could more simply explain the available data. Here, Pandey et al. reply to Clift et al.’s comment, and argue that geochemical and isotope data for Laxmi basin lavas distinctly imply relict subduction initiation.

    • Dhananjai K. Pandey
    • , Anju Pandey
    •  & Scott A. Whattam

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Feldspars are stable at pressures up to 3 GPa along the mantle geotherm, but they can persist metastably at higher pressures at colder conditions. Here, above 10 GPa the authors find  new high-pressure polymorphs of feldspars that could persist at depths corresponding to the Earth’s upper mantle, potentially influencing the dynamics and fate of cold subducting slabs.

    • Anna Pakhomova
    • , Dariia Simonova
    •  & Leonid Dubrovinsky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Semail ophiolite provides evidence for geological processes that form oceanic crust, however, its deep structure remains debated. Here, the authors use geophysical imaging to determine that the ophiolite is bound by a thrust fault in the west, and a normal fault in the east, bounding a rapidly subsiding basin, implying the ophiolite may not be rooted in the Gulf of Oman crust.

    • M. Y. Ali
    • , A. B. Watts
    •  & T. Ambrose

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Subglacial lakes and jökulhlaups (glacier outburst floods) are common in volcanic and glaciated environments, and can pose potential threats to communities living downstream. Here, the authors find that seismic tremor signals during subglacial floods can be used to locate and track the speed and size of the flood before it arrives at the river system, and improves previous methods of early glacial flood warning by a factor of 5.

    • Eva P. S. Eibl
    • , Christopher J. Bean
    •  & Kristin S. Vogfjörd

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Large-volume volcanic eruptions can occur despite only limited precursory activity. Here the authors show that modelling the combined effects of buoyant magma, viscoelastic earth behaviour, and sustained magma channels can explain such behaviour of volcanoes and gives an estimate of pressure evolution in magma bodies.

    • Freysteinn Sigmundsson
    • , Virginie Pinel
    •  & Tadashi Yamasaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    CH4 seepage mostly occurs in petroleum-bearing sedimentary basins, but the role of tectonics in degassing is mostly only known at a local scale. Here, the authors conduct a global scale analysis of seeps, faults, sedimentary basins, petroleum fields and heat flow, and find that geological CH4 seepage preferably develops in convergent basins, while gas seeps can occur along any brittle tectonic structure.

    • Giancarlo Ciotoli
    • , Monia Procesi
    •  & Guido Ventura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Identification of stratospheric volcanic eruptions in the geological record and their link to mass extinction events during the past 540 million years remains challenging. Here, the authors report unexpected, large mass-independent sulphur isotopic compositions of pyrite in Late Ordovician sedimentary rocks, which they suggest originates from stratospheric volcanism linked to the first pulse of the Late Ordovician mass extinction.

    • Dongping Hu
    • , Menghan Li
    •  & Yanan Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earth rotation variation reflects the physics, dynamics and the magnetic field changes of Earth’s interior. The authors find a significant ~8.6 year periodic increasing oscillation in length of day and its good link to geomagnetic jerks related to Earth’s core oscillations, which may be used to predict the future jerk timings.

    • Pengshuo Duan
    •  & Chengli Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Siberian Arctic permafrost contains vast stores of carbon, the fate of which is dependent on the climate. Here the authors use models of future scenarios to show that under the direst climate changes up to 2/3 of the stored organic carbon could thaw.

    • Jan Nitzbon
    • , Sebastian Westermann
    •  & Julia Boike

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Slow slip events are commonly observed on natural faults all around the world and are suggested to precede large magnitude and/or high frequency earthquakes. The authors here identify merging phases of slow slip events using continuous GPS measurements and define areas and periods at risk of large earthquake occurrence.

    • Quentin Bletery
    •  & Jean-Mathieu Nocquet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The dynamics of continental subduction is largely controlled by the rheological properties of rocks involved along the subduction channel. Here, the authors reveal a prominent, yet previously undetected, low-velocity body beneath the Western Alps, along the plate interface between the European slab and the overlying Adriatic mantle, which they interpret as a serpentinite layer.

    • Liang Zhao
    • , Marco G. Malusà
    •  & Stefano Solarino

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