Volcanology articles within Nature

Featured

  • Letter |

    These authors use a scaling argument derived from a model of heat transfer in subduction zones to argue that the locations of volcanic arcs cannot be explained by the release of fluids in reactions taking place near the top of the slab. Instead, they conclude that the sharpness of the volcanic fronts, together with the systematics of their locations, require that arcs be located above the place where the boundary defined by the anhydrous solidus makes its closest approach to the trench.

    • Philip C. England
    •  & Richard F. Katz

  • Books & Arts |

    Powerful volcanoes remind us of the fragile boundary between Earth's crust and mantle, finds Laura Spinney.

    • Laura Spinney

  • Letter |

    High 3He/4He ratios in some basalts have been interpreted as evidence for ancient reservoirs preserved in the Earth’s mantle; however, such rocks have never been observed to host the primitive lead-isotopic compositions required for an early formation age. These authors show that Baffin Island and West Greenland lavas exhibit primitive lead-isotope ratios consistent with a mantle source age of 4.55–4.45 billion years, and that their source may be the most ancient accessible reservoir in the mantle.

    • Matthew G. Jackson
    • , Richard W. Carlson
    •  & Jerzy Blusztajn

  • News & Views |

    Geochemical evidence for the existence of the mother of all mantle-source reservoirs for volcanism has come to light. The new results have provocative implications for our understanding of Earth's interior.

    • David Graham

  • Letter |

    Diamonds are formed under high pressure more than 150 kilometres deep in the Earth's mantle, and are brought to the surface mainly by volcanic rocks called kimberlites. Here, plate reconstructions and tomographic images have been used to show that the edges of the largest heterogeneities in the deepest mantle, stable for at least 200 million years and possibly for 540 million years, seem to have controlled the eruption of most Phanerozoic kimberlites. This has implications for future exploration for kimberlites.

    • Trond H. Torsvik
    • , Kevin Burke
    •  & Lewis D. Ashwal

  • News & Views |

    Plate reconstructions show that ancient eruptions of diamond-bearing rocks occurred consistently above a ring-like region of plume-generation zones deep in Earth's mantle. Do such zones remain stationary?

    • David A. D. Evans

  • Letter |

    Rifting and magmatism are fundamental geological processes that shape our planet's surface, but the nature of the relationship between these processes has been controversial. Here a numerical model that explicitly accounts for the effects of earlier episodes of extension has been applied to compare magmatism generated at different locations during continental rifting. The findings show that the volume of rift-related magmatism generated depends not only on the mantle temperature but also on the rift history.

    • John J. Armitage
    • , Jenny S. Collier
    •  & Tim A. Minshull

  • Letter |

    Volcanic eruptions release a large amount of sulphur dioxide. This is oxidized to sulphate and can then form sulphate aerosol, which can affect the Earth's radiation balance. Here, past volcanic eruptions and atmospheric conditions are investigated by using sulphur and triple oxygen isotope measurements of atmospheric sulphate preserved in the rock record. The results show that seven eruption-related sulphate aerosol deposition events occurred in the mid-Cenozoic era in the northern High Plains of North America.

    • Huiming Bao
    • , Shaocai Yu
    •  & Daniel Q. Tong

  • News Feature |

    The Icelandic eruption has given researchers the opportunity of a lifetime. Katharine Sanderson talks to scientists working around the clock to study the volcano and its effects.

    • Katharine Sanderson

  • News |

    The eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980 left an indelible mark on the field of volcanology. Janet Fang reports.

    • Janet Fang

  • Opinion |

    There are mathematically advanced ways to weigh and pool scientific advice. They should be used more to quantify uncertainty and improve decision-making, says Willy Aspinall.

    • Willy Aspinall

Browse broader subjects

Browse Volcanology across other nature.com journals