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.
In the South Asian lowlands, high population density coincides with dangerous levels of arsenic in groundwater. Maps based on surface geology can help identify regions at risk of arsenic contamination.
The Waiho Loop moraine in New Zealand's southern Alps had long been viewed as a southern icon of a recent glacier response to cooling climate, possibly the Younger Dryas cold event. But a closer look has implicated a landslide in this particular glacial advance.
Cratons are ancient continental nuclei that have resisted significant fragmentation for almost two billion years. Yet, many cratons also experience phases of instability in the form of erosion and rejuvenation of their thick lithospheric mantle keels. Melting governed by redox processes as well as small-scale convection play a key role in triggering such instability.
Most of the world's surface oceans are oversaturated with respect to atmospheric methane and emit large quantities of this greenhouse gas. Aerobic decomposition of phosphorus-containing organic compounds may be responsible.
The uneven distribution of biological nitrogen fixation in terrestrial ecosystems has yet to be explained. Latitudinal gradients in temperature and phosphorus may hold the answer.
Ninety-five million years ago, ocean bottom waters were much warmer than at present. Some of this warmth could have come from the proto-North Atlantic's continental shelves after the balmy surface waters became increasingly salty through evaporation.
European forests are intensively exploited for wood products, yet they are also a potential sink for carbon. European forest inventories combined with timber harvest statistics from sixteen European countries show that between 1950 and 2000 forest biomass increased faster than the amount of timber harvests. Silviculture, which has developed over the past 50 years, can efficiently sequester carbon on timescales of decades, while maintaining forests that meet the demand for wood.
Land and ocean carbon sinks play a critical role in determining atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Nitrogen-induced increases in land and ocean sink strength are unlikely to keep pace with future increases in carbon dioxide.
Archaean and early Proterozoic rocks reveal that the Earth's magnetic field two billion years ago behaved differently than over most of the past 200 million years. Do these changes relate to the growth of the inner core?
Two overlapping oceanic plates are sinking into the mantle underneath central Japan where they dehydrate, releasing water-rich fluids that enhance mantle melting. Geochemical work helps determine the relative contribution of each plate to the overall fluid budget.
The Nili Fossae region on Mars is one of the places earmarked for the search of evidence for life. A combination of geomorphological and mineralogical data from the area suggest ideal conditions for the burial of organic matter.
The termination of the Marinoan glaciation 635 million years ago is one of the most spectacular climate change events ever recorded. Methane release from equatorial permafrost might have triggered this global meltdown.
Uncertainty over tropical tropospheric temperature change has loomed large over the last two decades. Use of wind data to infer temperature change offers a new avenue of investigation.
Stunning images of fjords are familiar to geologists, but their origins are less well known. A simple model suggests that topographic steering of ice and erosion proportional to ice discharge are sufficient to explain fjord formation during the Quaternary period.
