Solid Earth sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors follow a new approach using analytic solutions for Poiseuille-Couette channel flow to compute asthenospheric viscosities under the Caribbean. Active asthenospheric flow observed under the Caribbean contradicts the traditional view that the asthenosphere is only a passive lubricating layer for Earth’s tectonic plates.

    • Yi-Wei Chen
    • , Lorenzo Colli
    •  & Hejun Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recently triggered seismic events such as the Pohang earthquake have exceeded predictions of average energy releases by a factor of 1000. A new framework is proposed to define maximum event magnitudes as a function of pre-existing critical stresses and fluid injection volume.

    • Ziyan Li
    • , Derek Elsworth
    •  & M. W. McClure

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The interplay between continental subduction exhumation dynamics and the obduction of ophiolite sheets remains enigmatic. Here, the authors show that the extrusion of the subducted continental upper crust triggers the necking and breaking of the oceanic upper plate and leads to far-travelled ophiolite sheet emplacement.

    • Kristóf Porkoláb
    • , Thibault Duretz
    •  & Ernst Willingshofer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Along the cold subduction geotherm, glaucophane remains stable down to pressure and temperature (P–T) conditions of ca. 240 km depth, whereas under the warm subduction geotherm, it dehydrates and breaks down into pyroxenes and silica between ca. 50 and 100 km depths.

    • Yoonah Bang
    • , Huijeong Hwang
    •  & Yongjae Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors here present a deep learning method to determine the source focal mechanism of earthquakes in realtime. They trained their network with approximately 800k synthetic samples and managed to successfully estimate the focal mechanism of four 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes with magnitudes larger than Mw 5.4.

    • Wenhuan Kuang
    • , Congcong Yuan
    •  & Jie Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors here present geodetic and seismic data for a complete eruptive cycle (2005-2018) for Sierra Negra volcano, Galapagos Island. The data shows the largest pre-eruptive inflation (6.5 m) and rates of seismicity ever observed before a basaltic eruption and provides a rare illustration of caldera resurgence mechanisms.

    • Andrew F. Bell
    • , Peter C. La Femina
    •  & Michael J. Stock

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors identify that magnetotelluric conductive anomalies commonly observed on the trenchward-side of volcanic arcs in subduction zones can be explained by subducted sediments. High-pressure experiments show that these sediment melts will react with the overlying mantle wedge to produce electrically conductive phlogopite pyroxenites.

    • M. W. Förster
    •  & K. Selway

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generally it is thought that ash aggregation leads to reduced atmospheric travel distances. Here, the authors show that the rafting effect can increase dispersal range by up to 3.7 times for particles between 300–500 μm, compared to sedimentation of individual clasts.

    • Eduardo Rossi
    • , Gholamhossein Bagheri
    •  & Costanza Bonadonna

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The configuration of past ice sheets, and therefore sea level, is highly uncertain. Here, the authors provide a global reconstruction of ice sheets for the past 80,000 years that allows to test proxy based sea level reconstructions and helps to reconcile disagreements with sea level changes inferred from models.

    • Evan J. Gowan
    • , Xu Zhang
    •  & Gerrit Lohmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Subduction of oceanic crust and sediments contributes to heterogeneities in the mantle, which are sampled by mantle plumes. Here, the authors find that extreme isotopic heterogeneity in Samoan clinopyroxenes can help constrain the composition of mantle sources containing sediment recycled into the Earth’s mantle.

    • Jenna V. Adams
    • , Matthew G. Jackson
    •  & John M. Cottle

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    The unprecedented cost of the 2018 eruption in Hawai’i reflects an intersection of disparate physical and social phenomena: widely spaced, highly destructive eruptions, and atypically high population growth. These were linked and the former indirectly drove the latter with unavoidable consequences.

    • Bruce F. Houghton
    • , Wendy A. Cockshell
    •  & Eric Yamashita

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors here investigate the stiffness reduction of solid geomaterials during earthquakes via combining field, experimental and numerical data. The study shows multiple metastable contacts at small surface separations below a few diameters of a water molecule due to the oscillatory hydration interaction.

    • Su-Yang Wang
    • , Hai-Yang Zhuang
    •  & Yu Miao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Albite is one of the major constituents in the Earth’s crust. Here, the authors report that under hydrous cold subduction conditions, albite undergoes breakdown into hydrated smectite and other phases, which release alkaline fluids into the mantle wedge.

    • Gil Chan Hwang
    • , Huijeong Hwang
    •  & Yongjae Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is widely hypothesised that primeval life utilized small organic molecules as sources of carbon and energy, however, the presence of such primordial ingredients in early Earth habitats has not yet been demonstrated. Here the authors report the existence of indigenous organic molecules and gases in primary fluid inclusions in c. 3.5- billion-year-old rocks from Western Australia.

    • Helge Mißbach
    • , Jan-Peter Duda
    •  & Volker Thiel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crustal doubling in Tibet and the Himalayas by underthrusting of the Indian plate is thought to require the presence of a mafic layer above the Moho. Here, the authors present seismic data which shows that the middle Lhasa Terrane has very low velocity (Vp < 6.7 km/s) throughout the 80 km thick crust, which they suggest is predominantly felsic in composition.

    • Gaochun Wang
    • , Hans Thybo
    •  & Irina M. Artemieva

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors here present a multi-lake paleoseismological approach to evaluate the role of earthquakes in causing a spatio-temporal cluster of large, prehistoric rockslides between 3000 and 4200 years ago in the Eastern European Alps and for which the triggering mechanisms are still debated.

    • Patrick Oswald
    • , Michael Strasser
    •  & Jasper Moernaut

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    This review dives deep into how earthquakes affect volcanoes, specifically into the relation between tectonic seismic activity and subsequent eruptions. Activity may increase in any volcanic setting in the 2–5 years following an earthquake, and especially at volcanic centres featuring vigorous hydrothermal activity.

    • Gilles Seropian
    • , Ben M. Kennedy
    •  & Arthur D. Jolly

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Rustenburg Layered Suite of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa, has long been regarded as a textbook result of fractional crystallization from a melt-dominated magma chamber. Here, the authors find that the Rustenburg Layered Suite can be derived from crustal assimilation by komatiitic magma to form magmatic mushes without requiring the existence of a magma chamber by using thermodynamic models.

    • Zhuosen Yao
    • , James E. Mungall
    •  & M. Christopher Jenkins

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global oxygen regulation over Earth history has largely depended on variations in organic carbon burial, which includes the suppression of land vegetation due to fires. Here, the authors show that major evolutionary changes in plant ecosystems could have influenced fire regimes and thus affected atmospheric O2.

    • Claire M. Belcher
    • , Benjamin J. W. Mills
    •  & Andrew J. Watson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nature and evolution of Earth’s crust during the Hadean and Eoarchean is largely unknown due to the lack of preserved material from this period. Here, the authors document a period of crustal rejuvenation between 3.2 and 3.0 Ga, coincident with peak mantle potential temperatures that imply greater degrees of mantle melting and injection of hot mafic-ultramafic magmas into older Hadean-to-Eoarchean felsic crust at this time.

    • C. L. Kirkland
    • , M. I. H. Hartnady
    •  & J. A. Hollis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors simulate bubble nucleation in silica-rich magma with conditions appropriate for Plinian eruptions. They demonstrate that the gap between decompression rate estimates from bubble number density and independent geospeedometers can be largely closed if nucleation is heterogenous facilitated by magnetite crystals and decompression rate is calculated as time-averaged values.

    • Sahand Hajimirza
    • , Helge M. Gonnermann
    •  & James E. Gardner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanisms that drive highly explosive eruptions of low-viscosity magmas, such as at Sunset Crater volcano, remain uncertain. Here, the authors present evidence for an exsolved CO2 phase ~15 km beneath Sunset Crater that was the critical driver of rapid magma ascent leading to the explosive eruption.

    • Chelsea M. Allison
    • , Kurt Roggensack
    •  & Amanda B. Clarke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fate of subducted CO2 remains debated, with estimates mainly from numerical predictions varying from wholesale decarbonation of the shallow subducting slab to massive deep subduction of CO2. Here, the authors present field-based data and show that ~40% to ~65% of the CO2 in subducting crust is released via metamorphic decarbonation reactions at forearc depths.

    • E. M. Stewart
    •  & Jay J. Ague

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study describes how the geomagnetic axial dipole dominance of Earth’s magnetic field remained stable through large parts of the geological time. Since other characteristics of the geomagnetic field have changed substantially on the same timescales, this new observation provides a challenge for future core modeling studies.

    • Andrew J. Biggin
    • , Richard K. Bono
    •  & Pavel V. Doubrovine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Human activities have accelerated soil erosion and landscape change in many areas. Here the authors show how rates of erosion, sediment transfer and alluvial sedimentation have increased by an order of magnitude across North America since European colonization, far exceeding the rates expected of natural processes.

    • David B. Kemp
    • , Peter M. Sadler
    •  & Veerle Vanacker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biomineral armour is known in a number of diverse creatures but has not previously been observed in insects. Here, the authors report on the discovery and characterization of high-magnesium calcite armour which overlays the exoskeletons of leaf-cutter ants.

    • Hongjie Li
    • , Chang-Yu Sun
    •  & Cameron R. Currie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest land ice contributor to sea level rise and understanding the long-term glacier response to external forcing is key to improved projections. Here the authors show Greenland’s three largest outlet glaciers will likely exceed current worst-case scenario

    • Shfaqat A. Khan
    • , Anders A. Bjørk
    •  & Toni Schenk

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Scientists increasingly post images and photos on social media to share their research activities. However, posting images and photos could potentially exclude people with visual impairments. Here, we outline actions that should be taken to foster accessibility and inclusion in posting scientific images on social media.

    • Domenico Chiarella
    • , Justin Yarbrough
    •  & Christopher A.-L. Jackson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Knowledge of shear-wave anisotropy is important to understanding the structure and dynamics of the subduction zone mantle wedge. Here, the authors find unambiguous evidence that forearc anisotropy resides in the upper-plate crust, while weak anisotropy in the most seaward part of the mantle wedge indicates decoupling from the slab

    • Naoki Uchida
    • , Junichi Nakajima
    •  & Youichi Asano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study makes use of the total spread of zircon ages and trace elements to study the thermal evolution of magmatic systems. Applied to Nevado de Toluca, the authors determine the size of its subvolcanic magma reservoir and assess its potential of re-activation.

    • Gregor Weber
    • , Luca Caricchi
    •  & Axel K. Schmitt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chattering dust, or chemically reactive grains of sucrose containing pockets of pressurized carbon dioxide, are used in this experimental approach to study rock fractures. The chattering dust emits acoustic shocks that can be monitored and illuminates fracture geometry.

    • Laura J. Pyrak-Nolte
    • , William Braverman
    •  & David D. Nolte

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The abnormally low concentration of xenon compared to other noble gases in Earth’s atmosphere remains debated, as the identification of mantle minerals that can capture and stabilize xenon is challenging. Here, the authors propose that xenon iron oxides could be potential Xe hosts in Earth’s lower mantle.

    • Feng Peng
    • , Xianqi Song
    •  & Yanming Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Marine records indicate a greenhouse to icehouse climate transition at ~34 million years ago, but how the climate changed within continental interiors at this time is less well known. Here, the authors show an orbital climate response shift with aridification on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau during this time.

    • Hong Ao
    • , Guillaume Dupont-Nivet
    •  & Zhisheng An

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors show that seismogenic faults can be activated by stress perturbations by all possible modes of slip independently of the frictional properties. They demonstrate, that the nature of seismicity is mostly governed by the initial stress level along the faults.

    • François X. Passelègue
    • , Michelle Almakari
    •  & Marie Violay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Few palaeoclimate archives beyond the polar regions preserve continuous and datable paleotemperature proxy time series over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. Here, the authors show that Mg concentrations in a subaqueous speleothem from an Italian cave track regional sea-surface temperatures over the last 350,000 years.

    • Russell Drysdale
    • , Isabelle Couchoud
    •  & Jon Woodhead

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pegmatite crystals are thought to grow rapidly, yet their growth rates and conditions are not well constrained. Here, the authors find that the trace element distributions of pegmatitic quartz crystals indicate rapid growth in highly dynamic environments, suggesting that large meter-scale crystals can be formed within days.

    • Patrick R. Phelps
    • , Cin-Ty A. Lee
    •  & Douglas M. Morton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coastal river delta regions are particularly impacted by the effects of climate change, yet though these regions are densely inhabited, robust estimates of population are lacking. Here the authors use global datasets to predict the number of people and regions most threatened by flooding and extreme weather.

    • Douglas A. Edmonds
    • , Rebecca L. Caldwell
    •  & Sacha M. O. Siani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transport properties of melts in the deep Earth have dictated the evolution of the early Earth’s magma oceans and also govern many modern dynamic processes, such as plate tectonics. Here, the authors find there is a reversal in the trends of transport properties of basaltic melts at pressures near 50 GPa, with implications for the timescales of early Earth’s magma oceans.

    • Arnab Majumdar
    • , Min Wu
    •  & John S. Tse

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