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 accumulation and subsequent recycling of carbonate in the crust may have helped to drive the oxygenation of the early Earth, according to an ocean and atmosphere box model incorporating the inorganic carbon cycle.
Human activities have altered the production, transport and fate of mud and associated organic carbon, with important implications for global carbon cycling.
Neoproterozoic banded iron formations formed in partially glaciated oceans where iron-rich and oxygenated water masses met, according to ocean modelling.
Pollution by per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) is widespread in global water resources and likely to be underestimated, according to global analysis of available PFAS data.
The Moon’s primordial solidification is believed to have produced a layer of dense ilmenite cumulates beneath the crust. Remnants of this layer have now been detected under the lunar nearside.
The Moon’s gravity field preserves a record of the overturn of the early lunar mantle and sinking of dense ilmenite-bearing cumulates, according to a comparison of Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory gravity data and geodynamic models.
A global data analysis suggests that a large fraction of surface waters and groundwaters globally have concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that exceed international advisories or national regulations.
Tight physical and observational constraints suggest the anvil cloud area feedback is weak, but the anvil cloud albedo feedback remains highly uncertain.
Volcanism after large, caldera-forming eruptions is thought to be muted. Exploration of the partially submerged caldera of Santorini reveals that large explosive eruptions have occurred since the caldera formed.
Daytime surface ocean warming has large-scale patterns associated with the sea surface temperature front, leading to an afternoon slackening of the front and impacts on surface wind variability.
Evidence for a past large explosive eruption within the Santorini caldera suggests that early stages of silicic caldera cycles can be more hazardous than previously assumed, according to analyses of intra-caldera deposits from the Kameni Volcano.
Schreibersite is found in meteorites and thought to dwell in planetary cores. Tingting Gu explains how it may also have supported life on the early Earth.
Understanding the ecosystem response to global environmental change requires consideration of geological processes, highlighting the interconnected nature of our Earth system.
The carbon emissions of large igneous province magmatism are commonly associated with severe environmental crises. We developed a technique that used sedimentary mercury records to estimate these carbon fluxes through time and found that they are smaller and/or slower than assumed, which suggests that the influence of carbon-cycle feedback processes is underestimated in current models.
A record of lower mantle flow from 50 million years ago is preserved in the Pacific region and provides evidence for past lower mantle deformation, according to seismic anisotropy tomography.
A shift towards more-frequent, less-intense fires in Australia began about 11,000 years ago due to management by Indigenous societies, according to charcoal and stable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon records extending back 150,000 years.
About half of the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation flows east of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a pathway steered by wind and not bottom topography, according to hydrographic data, reanalysis and model simulations.
Canal networks in Southeast Asian peatlands are zones of rapid, light-driven biogeochemical cycling. The canals increase carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere and decrease organic carbon export to the ocean.