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| Open AccessLate Cambrian geomagnetic instability after the onset of inner core nucleation
An 80 thousand-year-long period of extreme non-geocentric dipole magnetic fields is recorded in Late Cambrian carbonate rocks of South China, suggesting that 495 million years ago Earth’s inner core had not grown large enough to stabilize the dynamo.
- Yong-Xiang Li
- , John A. Tarduno
- & Zhenyu Yang
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| Open AccessCycles of Andean mountain building archived in the Amazon Fan
South American cordilleran orogenic systems have repeated complex magmatic and deformation histories. Here the authors analyze detrital zircons found in the Amazon deep-sea fan that record mountain-building events and reveal cycles of orogenesis with periods of ~60–90 Myr since the Phanerozoic.
- Cody C. Mason
- , Brian W. Romans
- & Andrea Fildani
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| Open AccessSustained and intensified lacustrine methane cycling during Early Permian climate warming
This study reports the occurrence of sustained and intensified microbial CH4 cycling in a giant lake in northwestern China during Early Permian climate warming. Lacustrine CH4 emissions may have contributed to the end of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age.
- Funing Sun
- , Wenxuan Hu
- & Shuzhong Shen
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| Open AccessAstronomical tuning of the Aptian stage and its implications for age recalibrations and paleoclimatic events
The Early Cretaceous Aptian stage represents an interval of major dramatic climate changes, but there is no consensus on its lower boundary age. Here, the authors present an astro-chronological framework that offers new age constraints on the onset and duration of Aptian ocean anoxic events and the ‘cold snap’, among other significant climatic events.
- C. G. Leandro
- , J. F. Savian
- & R. I. F. Trindade
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| Open AccessSynchronizing rock clocks in the late Cambrian
The Cambrian is the most poorly dated period of the past 541 million years. Here, the authors present a new astronomical time scale, allowing for a first assessment, in numerical time, of the evolution of major biotic and abiotic changes that characterized the late Cambrian Earth.
- Zhengfu Zhao
- , Nicolas R. Thibault
- & Arne T. Nielsen
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| Open AccessAlpine permafrost could account for a quarter of thawed carbon based on Plio-Pleistocene paleoclimate analogue
The stability of permafrost carbon is poorly understood. Here the authors use Plio-Pleistocene clumped isotope reconstructions from the Tibetan Plateau and climate simulation to determine that ~85 petagrams of alpine carbon is vulnerable to thawing.
- Feng Cheng
- , Carmala Garzione
- & Aradhna Tripati
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| Open AccessExistence of a continental-scale river system in eastern Tibet during the late Cretaceous–early Palaeogene
This study provides evidence for a continental-scale river system that existed in eastern Tibet before the India-Asia collision. The river system developed an extensive low-relief landscape, which was uplifted and dissected during the late Cenozoic.
- Xudong Zhao
- , Huiping Zhang
- & Peizhen Zhang
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| Open AccessMiddle Ordovician astrochronology decouples asteroid breakup from glacially-induced biotic radiations
The Middle Ordovician icehouse has been suggested to be sparked by extra-terrestrial dust associated with an asteroid break-up. Here, the authors use an astronomically calibrated timescale to decouple millennia-scale climate and biodiversity change from the meteorite shower 468.4 million years ago.
- Jan Audun Rasmussen
- , Nicolas Thibault
- & Christian Mac Ørum Rasmussen
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| Open AccessPaleocene/Eocene carbon feedbacks triggered by volcanic activity
The Paleocene–Eocene boundary coincided with runaway global warming possibly analogous to future climate change, but the sources of greenhouse gasses have remained unresolved. Here, the authors reveal volcanism triggered initial warming, and subsequent carbon was released after crossing a tipping point.
- Sev Kender
- , Kara Bogus
- & Melanie J. Leng
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| Open Access3D sedimentary architecture showing the inception of an Ice Age
Northeast Atlantic climate shifted into the Quaternary Ice Age around 2.6 Myr ago. Here, the authors use 3D seismic data from the northern North Sea to document detailed changes in continental-margin sedimentary architecture spanning the transition from a fluvially dominated environment to an icehouse world.
- H. Løseth
- , J. A. Dowdeswell
- & D. Ottesen
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| Open AccessSubmarine slope failures due to pipe structure formation
There is a strong correlation between submarine slope failures and the occurrence of gas hydrates. Here, the authors use a combination of seismic data and numerical modelling to show that overpressure at the gas hydrate stability zone leads to potential destabilization of the slope and submarine landslides.
- Judith Elger
- , Christian Berndt
- & Wolfram H. Geissler
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| Open AccessEnd-Triassic mass extinction started by intrusive CAMP activity
The cause of the end-Triassic extinction remains controversial. Here, the authors present U-Pb age data showing that magmatic activity occurred 100 kyr before the earliest known eruptions, which links to changes in climate and biotic records indicating the importance of understanding the intrusive record.
- J.H.F.L. Davies
- , A. Marzoli
- & U. Schaltegger