Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The high eastern Tibetan Plateau was thought to have formed from an inflow of material from the lower crust. The cooling histories of rocks exposed at the plateau margin, however, reveal protracted, episodic growth, suggesting that faulting also played a role.
The Triassic–Jurassic period extinction marked a rapid turnover in the marine realm. Biomarkers in marine rocks suggest that the development of sulphidic conditions in the early Jurassic delayed marine recovery.
Iron-loving elements are thought to have been added to Mars, Earth and the Moon after core formation. An analysis of meteorites formed in the first two to three million years of Solar System history suggests that a similar late veneer was added elsewhere too.
Sulphur cycling on early Earth is commonly linked to microbial activity. However, sulphur isotope values from 3.2–3.5-billion-year-old rocks indicate a central role for the breakdown of volcanic sulphur dioxide by ultraviolet radiation instead.
Deep convection does not normally occur in the modern North Pacific Ocean, but that may have changed during the last deglaciation. Sea ice and surface temperature reconstructions show that if so, it was not associated with significant northward heat transport.
Enigmatically, some landslides flow farther than normal frictional resistance allows. Cassini images of Saturn's icy moon Iapetus reveal a multitude of long-runout landslides that may have been enabled by flash heating along the sliding surface.
The southeastern US coastline is under threat as land subsides and sea level rises. Measurements of the 2011 Mississippi River flood suggest that the river carries enough sandy sediment to offset some of this coastal drowning.
Earth's magnetic field is characterized by a puzzling hemispheric asymmetry. Calculations of core dynamo processes suggest that lopsided growth of the planet's inner core may be part of the cause.
Despite variable forcing by tectonics, the height of mountain ranges seems to be limited. Satellite imagery suggests that landsliding rates adjust to large changes in uplift, acting to maintain hillslopes of similar steepness.
Aerosol concentrations in China have reached unhealthy levels, at least locally. Model simulations suggest that a significant contribution comes from the weakening monsoon circulation in past decades, trapping more pollutants over land.
The last deglaciation was punctuated by several millennial-scale climate changes. In the Gulf of California, the cold stages were marked by decreased upwelling, opposite to the changes expected if these shifts were analogous to modern seasonal variability.
Mercury concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere exhibit a pronounced peak during summer. Model simulations suggest that this can be explained only if boreal rivers deliver large quantities of mercury to the Arctic Ocean.
Lichens, cyanobacteria, mosses and algae coat many terrestrial surfaces. These biological covers turn out to play an important role in the global cycling of carbon and nitrogen.
Most volcanism on Earth takes place under water, yet little is known about submarine eruptions. Monitoring of two volcanic seamounts beneath the Pacific Ocean reveals the pulsed nature of their eruption cycles.
Earthquakes may trigger or retard quakes on nearby faults, but such relationships are difficult to verify. Observations showing that the Landers earthquake in California shut down aftershocks from a preceding event validate such relationships.
Greenland's glaciers have lost significant amounts of ice over the past decade. Rediscovered historical images of the ice margin show a record of southeast Greenland's response to the last major warming event in the 1930s.
