Geodynamics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermal conductivity of Earth’s core affects Earth’s thermal structure, evolution and dynamics. Based on thermal conductivity measurements of iron–silicon alloys at high pressure and temperature conditions, the authors here propose Earth’s inner core could be older than previously expected.

    • Wen-Pin Hsieh
    • , Alexander F. Goncharov
    •  & Jung-Fu Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One of the largest continental microplates on Earth is situated in the center of the East African Rift System, and oddly, the Victoria microplate rotates counterclockwise with respect to the neighboring African tectonic plate. Here, the authors' modelling results suggest that Victoria microplate rotation is caused by edge-driven lithospheric processes related to the specific geometry of rheologically weak and strong regions.

    • Anne Glerum
    • , Sascha Brune
    •  & Manfred R. Strecker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Large-volume volcanic eruptions can occur despite only limited precursory activity. Here the authors show that modelling the combined effects of buoyant magma, viscoelastic earth behaviour, and sustained magma channels can explain such behaviour of volcanoes and gives an estimate of pressure evolution in magma bodies.

    • Freysteinn Sigmundsson
    • , Virginie Pinel
    •  & Tadashi Yamasaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earth rotation variation reflects the physics, dynamics and the magnetic field changes of Earth’s interior. The authors find a significant ~8.6 year periodic increasing oscillation in length of day and its good link to geomagnetic jerks related to Earth’s core oscillations, which may be used to predict the future jerk timings.

    • Pengshuo Duan
    •  & Chengli Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The dynamics of continental subduction is largely controlled by the rheological properties of rocks involved along the subduction channel. Here, the authors reveal a prominent, yet previously undetected, low-velocity body beneath the Western Alps, along the plate interface between the European slab and the overlying Adriatic mantle, which they interpret as a serpentinite layer.

    • Liang Zhao
    • , Marco G. Malusà
    •  & Stefano Solarino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Retreating subduction zones are enabled by the development of faults at the edges of the slab, but the physical mechanisms controlling fault propagation remain debated. Here, the authors find that oceanic crust recycling is controlled by weakening of fractures forming at the edges of slabs.

    • Jessica Munch
    • , Taras Gerya
    •  & Kosuke Ueda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors here present a stress map of the North American crust that gives a new view of dynamics of the continent. The results can be applied to probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and resource development as well as to provide constraints for theoretical models of crustal dynamics.

    • Jens-Erik Lundstern
    •  & Mark D. Zoback

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The magmatic progression produced during the initiation of the Izu-Bonin-Marianas subduction zone took place rapidly over 1 million years, but it has been unclear why. Here, using numerical models, the authors show that subduction initiation was dominated by vertical forces, internal to the system itself, progressing to self-sustained subduction.

    • B. Maunder
    • , J. Prytulak
    •  & M. Reagan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topography at active forearc margins is controlled by numerous competing tectonic and erosional processes acting at different timescales, yet separating their respective contribution remains a challenge. Here, the authors evidence Myr-scale, uplift-then-subsidence cycles controlled by transient accretion at the base of the forearc domain.

    • Armel Menant
    • , Samuel Angiboust
    •  & Raphael Grandin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Seismology is a powerful tool to investigate Earth’s interior. Here, the authors combine numerical approaches with experimental results from previous studies to show a depth dependent behaviour of seismic waves in subducted oceanic crust in Earth’s mantle. The work challenges the currently accepted model of depth-independent seismic wave behaviour in oceanic crust.

    • Wenzhong Wang
    • , Yinhan Xu
    •  & Zhongqing Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cratons represent the ancient cores of continental plates and are generally thought to have been stable since the Archean. Here however, the authors combine seismic analysis with kimberlite data to infer complete destruction of cratonic lithosphere in some places of the African continent.

    • Nicolas Luca Celli
    • , Sergei Lebedev
    •  & Carmen Gaina

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum constitutes one of the largest climate perturbations in Earth’s history, but its exact causes are not well known. New estimates of greenhouse gas fluxes from the North Atlantic Igneous Province at high temporal resolution show that they could have initiated this event.

    • Stephen M. Jones
    • , Murray Hoggett
    •  & Tom Dunkley Jones

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some of Earth’s earliest continental crust has been previously inferred to have formed from partial melting of hydrated mafic crust at pressures above 1.5 GPa (more than 50 km deep), pressures typically not reached in post-Archean continental crust. Here, the authors show that such high pressure signatures can result from melting of mantle sources rather than melting of crust, and they suggest there is a lack of evidence that Earth’s earliest crust melted at depths significantly below 40 km.

    • Robert H. Smithies
    • , Yongjun Lu
    •  & Marc Poujol

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The links between plate tectonics and deep mantle structure remain unclear. Here, the authors demonstrate that transition elements (Ni, Cr, and Fe/Mn) in basaltic rocks can be used as a tool to trace plume-related magmatism through Earth history, and their results indicate the presence of a direct relationship between the intensity of plume magmatism and the supercontinent cycle.

    • Hamed Gamal EL Dien
    • , Luc S. Doucet
    •  & Ross Mitchell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The tectonic evolution of southwestern North America remains debated. Here, the authors present a complete time-dependent geodynamic model of the tectonic evolution of southwestern North America, which can explain the extensional collapse of the Basin and Range Province since the Late Eocene.

    • Alireza Bahadori
    •  & William E. Holt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The elevation and high heat flow of Southern South Africa has controversially been attributed to a mantle plume. Here, the authors link degassed CO2 to a non-degassed mantle source rather than the convecting upper mantle, confirming plume-related mantle melting.

    • S. M. V. Gilfillan
    • , D. Györe
    •  & F. M. Stuart

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Diamonds can give us clues to the processes regulating deep carbon transport within the Earth. Here, the author discovers evidence from diamond coatings that organic compounds exist at great depth in Earth’s interior, and furthermore, that organic molecules may provide scaffolds for diamond nucleation and growth.

    • Maria Luce Frezzotti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The India-Asia collision has formed the highest mountains on Earth and is associated with extensive intraplate deformation. Here, the authors present geodynamic experiments of continental deformation across Central, East, and Southeast Asia which suggest that the Pacfic and Sunda subduction zones played an active role during intraplate deformation.

    • W. P. Schellart
    • , Z. Chen
    •  & F. M. Rosas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sulphur isotopes track recycling of subducted crustal material, yet few igneous rocks preserve these signals over Earth history. Here, the authors investigate a billion-year-old alkaline province in Greenland and are able to reconstruct a recycled mantle source, thus alkaline rocks can be used to reveal crustal recycling through geological time.

    • William Hutchison
    • , Rainer J. Babiel
    •  & Nicola J. Horsburgh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controversy surrounds the fixity of both hotspots and large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs). Here, the authors present new paleomagnetic data to show that the great bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain can be attributed to mantle plume motion and that LLSVPs are mobile.

    • Richard K. Bono
    • , John A. Tarduno
    •  & Hans-Peter Bunge

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tectonic plate motions are often reconstructed based on the assumption that mantle plumes are fixed within the mantle. Here, the authors provide geochemical and geodynamic evidence to suggest that the asymmetry of the Azores thermal anomaly can be explained by northward motion of the Azores plume.

    • Maëlis Arnould
    • , Jérôme Ganne
    •  & Xiaojun Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recycling of Earth’s crust through subduction and delamination contributes to mantle heterogeneity. Here, the authors measure coupled Sr-Nd-Pb isotope compositions of melt inclusions in Italian potassium-rich lavas, they suggest their results indicate a potential ancient lower crustal component in the mantle source.

    • Janne M. Koornneef
    • , Igor Nikogosian
    •  & Gareth R. Davies

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting the friction at the ice/bedrock interface prevents a full understanding of glacier dynamics. Here, the authors present a framework for the transient evolution of basal shear stress and incorporate it in glacier simulations. This tool is capable of explaining surge onset and propagation.

    • Kjetil Thøgersen
    • , Adrien Gilbert
    •  & Anders Malthe-Sørenssen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The tectonic evolution of the Laxmi basin, in the northwest Indian Ocean, remains controversial. Here, the authors present new geochemical and seismic data which indicate the Laxmi basin formed by a subduction initiation event during the break-up of Gondwana.

    • Dhananjai K. Pandey
    • , Anju Pandey
    •  & Scott A. Whattam

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sediments have the potential to preserve the signature of geologic events such as earthquakes. Here, the authors provide a paleoseismological analysis of the sediments of Lake Rara, Nepal, to reconstruct the number of earthquakes that caused lake shaking and subsequent turbidite deposition during the last centuries.

    • Z. Ghazoui
    • , S. Bertrand
    •  & P. A. van der Beek

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Continuous continental rift zones evolve from enigmatic interactions between individual propagating rift segments. Here, the authors document progressive focusing of tectonic and magmatic activity caused by interactions between the Kenyan and Ethiopian rift segments of the East African Rift.

    • Giacomo Corti
    • , Raffaello Cioni
    •  & Anne Glerum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the 1000 km long Izu-Bonin subduction zone to the south of Tokyo, the Pacific Plate descends beneath the Philippine Sea Plate. Here the authors use teleseismic double-difference tomography to image the complex morphology of the Izu-Bonin slab, especially in the mantle transition zone.

    • Haijiang Zhang
    • , Fan Wang
    •  & Hao Guo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It remains controversial whether or not impact melt sheets produced by asteroid impacts were able to undergo large-scale igneous differentiation. Here the authors present evidence for large igneous differentiation in one of these sheets and argue that this process has contributed to the evolution and lithological diversity of the proto-crusts on terrestrial planets.

    • Rais Latypov
    • , Sofya Chistyakova
    •  & Hannu Huhma

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    The evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is driven by a combination of climate forcing and non-climatic feedbacks. In this review, the authors focus on feedbacks between the Antarctic Ice Sheet and the solid Earth, and the role of these feedbacks in shaping the response of the ice sheet to past and future climate changes.

    • Pippa L. Whitehouse
    • , Natalya Gomez
    •  & Douglas A. Wiens

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A new regime of planetary magnetic fields was revealed through the MESSENGER spacecraft mission to Mercury. Here, the authors present a numerical dynamo model that can re-produce both the axisymmetric and anomalously axially offset dipolar magnetic field of Mercury.

    • Futoshi Takahashi
    • , Hisayoshi Shimizu
    •  & Hideo Tsunakawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Volatile exchange between the Earth’s interior and surface layers is one of the central issues in mantle geochemistry. Here the authors present evidence that chlorine is transferred from the surface to the deep mantle by subducted oceanic crust, forming a chlorine-rich mantle reservoir.

    • Takeshi Hanyu
    • , Kenji Shimizu
    •  & Tsuyoshi Ishikawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mantle-sourced magmas erupted at hotspot volcanoes can provide clues to the sulphur cycle over geological timescales. In this work, sulphur isotopes were analysed in crystal-hosted inclusions entrapped at depth, and reveal the presence of post-Archaean recycled material in the Canary Island mantle.

    • Patrick Beaudry
    • , Marc-Antoine Longpré
    •  & John Stix

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Weak lower crustal flow in Tibet has been invoked to reconcile geophysical observations, yet viscosity estimates vary from 1016 to 1021 Pa·s. Here the authors show that viscous buckling of the upper crust in response to lower crust flow (viscosity ~1020 Pa·s) is responsible for the observed extension in Tibet.

    • Sarah H. Bischoff
    •  & Lucy M. Flesch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earth degassing of CO2-rich fluids contributes significantly to the global carbon budget but its link to tectonic regimes remains unclear. Here, the authors use global geological datasets to show that there is a positive spatial correlation between CO2 discharges and extensional tectonic regimes.

    • Giancarlo Tamburello
    • , Silvia Pondrelli
    •  & Dmitri Rouwet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Tibetan plateau is manifested by contrasting along-strike lithospheric structures, but the correlation with multi-terrane configuration remains challenging. Here, the authors show the crucial roles of the original geometric shape of accreted terranes in regulating the lithospheric evolution of Tibetan plateau.

    • Pengpeng Huangfu
    • , Zhong-Hai Li
    •  & Yaolin Shi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Creeping serpentinite shear zones may host large earthquakes, but direct evidence of frictional heating and rupture have been missing. Here, the authors demonstrate via laboratory experiments that earthquake ruptures can propagate through serpentinite shear zones shown by high-temperature reaction products.

    • Matthew S. Tarling
    • , Steven A. F. Smith
    •  & James M. Scott

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crustal melting may play a fundamental role in orogenic processes, but quantifying crustal melt remains difficult. Here, the authors combine pressure-temperature paths, electrical conductivity and geophysical data to elucidate the melting conditions in Tibet since the Miocene.

    • Jinyu Chen
    • , Fabrice Gaillard
    •  & Guillaume Richard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The West Antarctic rift system, which divides the East and West Antarctic plates, was believed to be active until 26 Myr. Here, the authors demonstrate through new geophysical data that rifting within the West Antarctic rift system lasted until 11 Myr, providing a new interpretation on the development of Antarctica.

    • Roi Granot
    •  & Jérôme Dyment

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The subducting plates can either penetrate straight into the lower mantle or flatten in the mantle transition zone, yet slab dynamics in the past remains unclear. Here, using subduction models, the authors predict that a hotter early Earth was probably more favourable to lower mantle slab penetration.

    • Roberto Agrusta
    • , Jeroen van Hunen
    •  & Saskia Goes

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Understudied in the Antarctic system are the subsurface interfaces between ice-sheet, ocean and geological substrate. Here, the authors review our understanding of these components and propose new avenues of holistic dynamic modeling to achieve a unified understanding of past, present and future polar climate.

    • Florence Colleoni
    • , Laura De Santis
    •  & Martin J. Siegert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Seismic discontinuities near 410 and 660 km depth have often been used to map lateral variations in mantle temperature. Here, the authors apply array analysis to SS reflections off these discontinuities under Hawaii and find evidence of lateral variations in mantle composition at 660 km, but not at 410 km.

    • Chunquan Yu
    • , Elizabeth A. Day
    •  & Robert D. van der Hilst

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earthquakes generated from the Nankai Trough have caused much devastation over the years. Here, the authors present a b-value map for the Nankai Trough zone, where the Eastern part of the trough has lower b-values than the West, which may help to explain why the Eastern part tends to rupture first.

    • K. Z. Nanjo
    •  & A. Yoshida

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiple complex tectonic and climatic processes have formed the Andes, which today provides a unique ecological niche. Here, Scott et al. investigate how the chemical composition of lavas from stratovolcanoes can be used to give insight on the uplift of the Andes over the last 200 million years.

    • Erin M. Scott
    • , Mark B. Allen
    •  & Mihai N. Ducea

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using mantle plumes to reconstruct past plate motion is complicated, because plumes may not be fixed. Here, the authors demonstrate using 40Ar/39Ar ages that the Rurutu plume is relatively stable compared to the rapidly moving Hawaiian plume, yet it has a similar deep mantle origin.

    • Kevin Konrad
    • , Anthony A. P. Koppers
    •  & Matthew G. Jackson

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