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Open Access
Featured
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Review Article |
Deep continental roots and cratons
Cratons are the oldest parts of the Earth’s continents; this Review concludes that the production of widespread, thick and strong lithosphere via the process of orogenic thickening was fundamental to the eventual emergence of extensive continental landmasses.
- D. Graham Pearson
- , James M. Scott
- & Peter B. Kelemen
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Research Highlight |
Toxic mercury rides rivers into the sea
Research suggests that rivers are a bigger source of mercury in coastal waters than is the atmosphere — a finding that contradicts some global models.
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Clusters of flowstone ages are not supported by statistical evidence
- Robyn Pickering
- , Andy I. R. Herries
- & John Hancox
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Article
| Open Access
The nutritional quality of cereals varies geospatially in Ethiopia and Malawi
Geospatial variation in the micronutrient composition (calcium, iron, selenium and zinc) of staple cereal grains is nutritionally important at subnational scales in Ethiopia and Malawi; these data could be used to improve surveillance of micronutrient deficiencies in the region.
- D. Gashu
- , P. C. Nalivata
- & M. R. Broadley
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Article |
Widespread six degrees Celsius cooling on land during the Last Glacial Maximum
Analyses and modelling of noble gases in groundwater show that the mean annual surface temperatures of low-altitude, low-to-mid-latitude land masses were about 6 °C cooler during the Last Glacial Maximum than during the Late Holocene.
- Alan M. Seltzer
- , Jessica Ng
- & Martin Stute
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Article |
Plume-driven recratonization of deep continental lithospheric mantle
Upwelling of mantle plumes is proposed as a mechanism for craton healing after substantial disruption of their roots, enabling them to return to their original lithospheric thickness.
- Jingao Liu
- , D. Graham Pearson
- & John P. Armstrong
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Article |
Oxygen isotopes trace the origins of Earth’s earliest continental crust
Oxygen isotopes and whole-rock geochemistry show that the water required to make Earth’s first continental crust was primordial and derived from the mantle, not surface water introduced by subduction.
- Robert H. Smithies
- , Yongjun Lu
- & Simon P. Johnson
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Article |
A 200-million-year delay in permanent atmospheric oxygenation
Sulfur isotope and iron–sulfur–carbon systematics on marine sediments indicate that permanent atmospheric oxygenation occurred around 2.22 billion years ago, about 100 million years later than currently estimated.
- Simon W. Poulton
- , Andrey Bekker
- & David T. Johnston
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News Feature |
How microbes in permafrost could trigger a massive carbon bomb
Genomics studies are helping to reveal how bacteria and archaea influence one of Earth’s largest carbon stores as it begins to thaw.
- Monique Brouillette
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News |
The hunt for life on Mars: A visual guide to NASA’s latest mission
The Perseverance spacecraft, due to land this week, aims to scour Jezero Crater and collect the first rocks from the red planet.
- Alexandra Witze
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News & Views |
The Arctic Ocean might have been filled with freshwater during ice ages
A geochemical study of sediments suggests that, during recent glacial periods, the Arctic Ocean was completely isolated from the world ocean, with fresh water filling the basin for thousands of years.
- Sharon Hoffmann
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Article |
The lithospheric-to-lower-mantle carbon cycle recorded in superdeep diamonds
Oxygen isotope measurements of mineral inclusions in superdeep diamonds indicate that carbonated igneous oceanic crust is the primary carbon-bearing reservoir in slabs subducted to deep-lithospheric and transition-zone depths.
- M. E. Regier
- , D. G. Pearson
- & J. W. Harris
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Article |
Ice retreat in Wilkes Basin of East Antarctica during a warm interglacial
Uranium isotopes in subglacial precipitates from the Wilkes Basin of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet reveal ice retreat during a warm Pleistocene interglacial period about 400,000 years ago.
- T. Blackburn
- , G. H. Edwards
- & J. T. Babbe
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Article |
Variable water input controls evolution of the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc
Serpentine subducted below the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc supplies water to the arc, controlling the location of seismicity, volcanic productivity and thickness of crust.
- George F. Cooper
- , Colin G. Macpherson
- & Marjorie Wilson
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Article |
Displaced cratonic mantle concentrates deep carbon during continental rifting
Carbon dioxide and helium data support lateral advection of carbon-rich cratonic mantle below the East African Rift System, which concentrates deep carbon and causes active carbonatite magmatism near the craton edge.
- James D. Muirhead
- , Tobias P. Fischer
- & Cynthia J. Ebinger
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Comment |
Store and share ancient rocks
Geological samples must be archived for all if we are to solve the riddles of Earth’s complex history.
- Noah Planavsky
- , Ashleigh Hood
- & Kirk Johnson
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News & Views |
Nitrogen variations in the mantle might have survived since Earth’s formation
A method for identifying atmospheric contamination of volcanic-gas samples reveals variations in the isotopic composition of nitrogen in the mantle, and provides a clearer view of the origins of this element in Earth’s interior.
- Rita Parai
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Article |
Hydrothermal 15N15N abundances constrain the origins of mantle nitrogen
A rare nitrogen isotopologue is used to detect contamination by air in volcanic gas effusions, and thereby derive the isotopic compositions of mantle endmembers.
- J. Labidi
- , P. H. Barry
- & E. D. Young
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News & Views |
Ancient rock bears isotopic fingerprints of Earth’s origins
Identifying Earth’s building blocks from terrestrial rocks is challenging because these ingredients have become mixed as the planet evolved. Evidence of an unknown building block in ancient rocks provides fresh insight.
- Katherine R. Bermingham
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Article |
Ruthenium isotope vestige of Earth’s pre-late-veneer mantle preserved in Archaean rocks
Ruthenium isotope compositions of the oldest preserved mantle rocks from Greenland imply that volatile-rich outer Solar System material was not delivered to Earth until very late in the planet’s formation.
- Mario Fischer-Gödde
- , Bo-Magnus Elfers
- & Hugh Smithies
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Article |
Last appearance of Homo erectus at Ngandong, Java, 117,000–108,000 years ago
Bayesian modelling of radiometric age estimates provides a robust chronology for Homo erectus at Ngandong (Java), confirming that this site currently represents the last known occurrence of this species.
- Yan Rizal
- , Kira E. Westaway
- & Russell L. Ciochon
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News |
The hunt for ancient ice that witnessed West Antarctica’s collapse
Core from Hercules Dome site could reveal how susceptible the region’s ice is to warming.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Article |
Light-driven anaerobic microbial oxidation of manganese
Anoxygenic photosynthetic microorganisms can biomineralize manganese oxides without molecular oxygen being present and without high-potential photosynthetic reaction centres, which sheds doubt on proposed dates for the origins of oxygenic photosynthetic metabolism.
- Mirna Daye
- , Vanja Klepac-Ceraj
- & Tanja Bosak
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Article |
Geochemical evidence for high volatile fluxes from the mantle at the end of the Archaean
Depletion of Archaean atmospheric xenon in 129Xe relative to the modern atmosphere might indicate that a short burst of mantle activity took place around 2.6 to 2.2 billion years ago.
- Bernard Marty
- , David V. Bekaert
- & Claude Jaupart
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News & Views |
The discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole
The unexpected discovery of a hole in the atmospheric ozone layer over the Antarctic revolutionized science — and helped to establish one of the most successful global environmental policies of the twentieth century.
- Susan Solomon
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Review Article |
Subducting carbon
The processes that control the movement of carbon from microfossils on the seafloor to erupting volcanoes and deep diamonds, in a cycle driven by plate tectonics, are reviewed.
- Terry Plank
- & Craig E. Manning
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News & Views |
Enigmatic origin of diamond-bearing rocks revealed
Kimberlites are volcanic rocks that derive from deep in Earth’s mantle, but the nature of their source is uncertain. A study of this source’s evolution over two billion years provides valuable information about its properties.
- Catherine Chauvel
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Mysteries of the ancient mantle, and the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Listen to the latest from the world of science, with Noah Baker and Benjamin Thompson.
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Letter |
Kimberlites reveal 2.5-billion-year evolution of a deep, isolated mantle reservoir
Globally distributed kimberlites have their origins in a single, homogeneous early Earth reservoir that was subsequently perturbed, probably by subduction along the margins of Pangaea, around 200 million years ago.
- Jon Woodhead
- , Janet Hergt
- & Geoff Nowell
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Letter |
Deep hydrous mantle reservoir provides evidence for crustal recycling before 3.3 billion years ago
Hydrogen isotopes and compositions of melt inclusions in olivine in komatiites indicate a hydrous source produced by recycling of seawater-altered crust into the deep mantle over 3.3 billion years ago.
- Alexander V. Sobolev
- , Evgeny V. Asafov
- & Gary R. Byerly
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Letter |
Reconstructing the late-accretion history of the Moon
Lunar impact simulations find an impactor-retention ratio three times lower than previously thought and indicate that highly siderophile element retention began 4.35 billion years ago, resolving accretion mass discrepancies between Earth and the Moon.
- Meng-Hua Zhu
- , Natalia Artemieva
- & Kai Wünnemann
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Letter |
Neogene cooling driven by land surface reactivity rather than increased weathering fluxes
A carbon cycle model constrained by weathering-sensitive isotopic tracers reveals that long-term cooling in the Neogene period reflects a change in how surface denudation is partitioned into weathering and erosion.
- Jeremy K. Caves Rugenstein
- , Daniel E. Ibarra
- & Friedhelm von Blanckenburg
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Books & Arts |
James Lovelock at 100: the Gaia saga continues
Tim Radford reassesses the independent scientist’s groundbreaking body of writing.
- Tim Radford
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Research Highlight |
Volcano’s magma hit top speed
Volcanologists might need to update their ideas about how molten rock travels from deep within Earth to erupt at the surface.
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Books & Arts |
Radiocarbon revolution: the story of an isotope
Chris Turney applauds a book on carbon-14 and its key applications in archaeology, climatology and oceanography.
- Chris Turney
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Books & Arts |
An ode to carbon
Ted Nield mulls over an ambitious opus on the sixth element.
- Ted Nield
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Evidence for two blue (type IIb) diamond populations
- Evan M. Smith
- , Steven B. Shirey
- & Wuyi Wang
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Nature Podcast |
PastCast: Discovering the ozone layer hole
In the Nature PastCast series, we delve into the archives to tell the stories behind some of Nature’s biggest papers.
- Kerri Smith
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Research Highlight |
Landlocked Mongolia might hold clues to underwater volcanoes
Chemistry of Central Asian minerals resembles that of deeply buried rocks that supply seafloor volcanic chains.
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Letter |
Sampling the volatile-rich transition zone beneath Bermuda
The formation of Bermuda sampled a previously unknown mantle reservoir that is characterized by silica-undersaturated melts enriched in volatiles and by a unique lead isotopic signature, which suggests that the source is young.
- Sarah E. Mazza
- , Esteban Gazel
- & Alexander V. Sobolev
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Research Highlight |
Lead from Roman mines pollutes ancient Alpine ice
A Mont Blanc glacier core also contains antimony from smelting carried out two millennia ago.
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Article |
Forearc carbon sink reduces long-term volatile recycling into the mantle
In the forearc regions of Costa Rica, helium and carbon isotope data reveal that about 20 per cent less carbon is being transported into the deep mantle than previously thought.
- P. H. Barry
- , J. M. de Moor
- & K. G. Lloyd
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News |
Antarctic project to drill for oldest-ever ice core
International team plans to extract 1.5-million-year-old ice that holds secrets about the planet’s ancient climate.
- Quirin Schiermeier
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Books & Arts |
Human evolution’s ties to tectonics
Kevin Padian applauds a book on the planet’s role in our biological and cultural development.
- Kevin Padian
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Research Highlight |
How the submerged continent of Zealandia took shape
The same geological processes that formed the oldest continents gave shape to what some consider the youngest.
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Brief Communications Arising |
Elasticity of lower-mantle bridgmanite
- Jung-Fu Lin
- , Zhu Mao
- & Suyu Fu
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Letter |
Capture of nebular gases during Earth’s accretion is preserved in deep-mantle neon
The distinctive 20Ne/22Ne ratio in material thought to come from deep mantle plumes provides evidence for nebular gas as a source of volatiles in Earth’s interior.
- Curtis D. Williams
- & Sujoy Mukhopadhyay
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Letter |
Chemical differentiation, cold storage and remobilization of magma in the Earth’s crust
Magma storage and differentiation in the Earth’s crust mainly occurs by reactive melt flow in long-lived mush reservoirs, rather than by fractional crystallization in magma chambers, as previously thought.
- M. D. Jackson
- , J. Blundy
- & R. S. J. Sparks
Two-billion-year-old volcanism on the Moon from Chang’e-5 basalts
Kurnosov et al. reply