The Triassic–Jurassic transition is characterized by the end-Triassic mass extinction approximately synchronous with the onset of emplacement of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), and associated with a major negative carbon-isotope excursion (CIE) affecting the ocean–atmosphere system. Here, we present new data (total organic carbon, pyrolysis analysis, carbon-isotopes from bulk organic

Paleoproterozoic sedimentary successions are important archives of the redox evolution of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Efforts to unravel the dynamics of our planet’s early oxygenation from this archive rely on various geochemical proxies, including stable carbon and sulfur isotopes. However, ancient metasedimentary rocks often experienced early- and late-stage (bio)geochemical processes making it

Source-to-sink paleogeography in a time-constrained sequence stratigraphic framework has been reconstructed for the non-marine to marine transitional Lopingian strata (Late Permian) in the western Yangtze Cratonic Basin (WYCB) and the adjacent inner zone of the Emeishan large igneous province (ELIP) in order to reveal the evolution of a mantle plume influenced cratonic basin. The Lopingian coal-bearing

Peatlands are wetlands that provide important ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and water storage that respond to hydrological, biological, and biogeochemical processes. These processes are strongly influenced by the complex pore structure of peat soils. We explore the literature on peat pore structure and the implications for hydrological, biogeochemical, and microbial processes in

Sediment Routing Systems (SRS) and Sediment Generation (SG) are two branches of sedimentary geology which are complementary, although their full integration remains incomplete. SRS connect all the steps of the journey of sediments from their formation to final deposition in relation to the denudation of sediment sources, the transfer of erosional products and their final deposition. SG is a branch

Landslides are one of the catastrophic natural hazards that occur in mountainous areas, leading to loss of life, damage to properties, and economic disruption. Landslide susceptibility models prepared in a Geographic Information System (GIS) integrated environment can be key for formulating disaster prevention measures and mitigating future risk. The accuracy and precision of susceptibility models

The surface of the streambed in gravel-bed rivers is commonly coarser than the underlying bed material. This surface coarsening, or ‘armouring’, is usually described by means of the ratio between surface and subsurface grain-size metrics (the ‘armour ratio’). Such surface coarsening is typical of river reaches that are degrading due to a deficit in sediment supply (e.g. gravel-bed reaches below dams

The need to predict accurately the volume, timing and location of sediments that are transported from an erosional source region into a basin-depocentre sink is important for many aspects of pure and applied sedimentological research. In this study, the results of three widely used methods to estimate sediment flux in ancient sediment routing systems are compared, using rich input datasets from two

Forcings and mechanisms underlying Holocene climate variability still remain poorly. This work review already published paleoclimatic time series and proposes an alternative way to compare them using spectral analysis. Such an approach may emphasize joint features between different signals and lead us closer to the causes of climate changes. Ten paleoclimatic proxy records from 5 sequences from the

Being a part of ongoing continental collision between the Arabian and Eurasian plates, the Caucasus region is a remarkable site of moderate to strong seismicity, where devastating earthquakes caused significant losses of lives and livelihood. In this article, we survey geology and geodynamics of the Caucasus and its surroundings; magmatism and heat flow; active tectonics and tectonic stresses caused

In the last two decades, stalagmite oxygen isotope (δ18O) records have been widely used to study the evolution of the paleomonsoon. Nevertheless, interpreting cave δ18O records in eastern monsoonal China as an indicator of East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) rainfall has been intensively debated. This study provides new insights into Chinese cave δ18O records and their paleoclimatic significance, based

The hydrological characteristics of debris-covered glaciers are known to be fundamentally different from those of clean-ice glaciers, even within the same climatological, geological, and geomorphological setting. Understanding how these characteristics influence the timing and magnitude of meltwater discharge is particularly important for regions where downstream communities rely on this resource for

The supercontinent Pangea was mainly formed during the Permian, but when it reached maximum land is unsure because the configuration of the East Asian blocks during the Permo-Triassic is still highly debated. Fossil tetrapods provide one of the best calibrations to the time of connection between continents, but the data of Permo-Triassic tetrapods have rarely been applied in the previous reconstructions

The Earth as a planetary system has experienced significant change since its formation c. 4.54 Gyr ago. Some of these changes have been gradual, such as secular cooling of the mantle, and some have been abrupt, such as the rapid increase in free oxygen in the atmosphere at the Archean–Proterozoic transition. Many of these changes have directly affected tectonic processes on Earth and are manifest by

Evolution of terrestrial plants, the first vascular plants, the first trees, and then whole forest ecosystems had far reaching consequences for Earth system dynamics. These innovations are considered important moments in the evolution of the atmosphere, biosphere, and oceans, even if the effects might have lagged by hundreds of thousands or millions of years. These fundamental changes in the Earth's

The Rif belt (Northern Morocco) forms the western edge of the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic system, resulting from the progressive closure of the Tethys oceanic domain between the Africa and Eurasia plates. The External Rif, topic of this paper, comprises three paleogeographic zones, namely the Prerif, Mesorif and Intrarif, inherited from the zonation of the North-West African paleo-margin from proximal

The general protocol for quantitative petrographic description of clastic sediments envisioned by J.C. Griffiths approximately 60 years ago is built on specification of the following five statistically independent fundamental properties of aggregates: modal composition, spatial arrangement, size distributions, shape distributions, and orientation distributions of the elements. Each element is represented

Earth is so far the only planet that exhibits plate tectonics, and along with the right heliocentric distance and the presence of surface water, plate tectonics is among necessary conditions for a habitable planet. Yet, the physics of this particular style of mantle convection is poorly understood, creating a substantial bottleneck in developing the general theory of planetary evolution. As plate tectonics

Coprolites are a highly informative but still underutilized proxy for understanding past environments, palaeodiets, and ancient human health. Here we provide a critical review of the history and current state of research in human coprolite analysis encompassing, macroscopic, microscopic, and biomolecular approaches. We present new data from a number of key sites which demonstrates how new multiscalar

Recent exchanges concerning methods for extracting thermal histories from low temperature thermochronology data do not address key limitations imposed by the nature of system response. Thermochronology data in isolation cannot define periods when samples were cooler and subsequently reheated. This can only be defined with the aid of constraints from geological evidence. The common assumption of slow

While mantle convection is a fundamental ingredient of geodynamics, the driving mechanism of plate tectonics remains elusive. Are plates driven only from the thermal cooling of the mantle or are there further astronomical forces acting on them? GPS measurements are now accurate enough that, on long baselines, both secular plate motions and periodic tidal displacements are visible. The now >20 year-long

The Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington State, USA, brought megafloods to the scientific forefront. A 30,000-km2 landscape of coulees and cataracts carved into the region’s loess-covered basalt attests to overwhelming volumes of energetic water. The scarred landscape, garnished by huge boulder bars and far-travelled ice-rafted erratics, spurred J Harlen Bretz’s vigorously disputed flood hypothesis

Vulcano is one of the 7 volcanic islands and 6 seamounts forming the Aeolian volcanic district (Italy). Vulcano has a long eruptive record, and its last eruption (1888–90) originated the definition of the Vulcanian eruptive style. Like most volcanic islands, Vulcano generates many potentially interconnected hazards, determining a potentially high risk. Here, we review the state of knowledge on its

Given the recent advances in remote sensing analytics, cloud computing, and machine learning, it is imperative to evaluate capabilities of remote sensing for water quality monitoring in the context of water resources management and decision-making. The objectives of this review were to analyze recent advances in water quality remote sensing and determine limitations of current systems, estimation methods

Earthquake early warning (EEW) is a relatively new strategy for reducing disaster risk and increasing resilience to seismic hazard in urban settings. EEW systems provide real-time information about ongoing earthquakes, enabling individuals, communities, governments, businesses and others located at distance to take timely action to reduce the probability of harm or loss before the earthquake-induced

Injection-induced seismicity has become a major barrier to the development of geothermal energy, because the complexity of fault behaviors and the lack of physical fundamentals make it extremely difficult to assess, predict, and control during geothermal energy extraction. The motivations of this review include, (1) to identify the recent advances in understanding and modelling of coupled thermo-h

Results from geomorphological, sedimentological and geochronological analyses, together with micropaleontological and mineralogical characteristics of lacustrine deposits in five locations within the Kuray intermountain depression, southeast Altai, mountains of south Siberia, support the thesis of repeated formations of ice-dammed lakes during MIS-2 and their draining by high energy floods. Our data

The latest Triassic was an interval of prolonged biotic extinction culminating in the end-Triassic Extinction (ETE). The ETE is now associated with a perturbation of the global carbon cycle just before the end of the Triassic that has been attributed to the extensive volcanism of the Circum-Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP). However, we attribute the onset of declining latest Triassic diversity to

Subduction at convergent margins introduces a range of sedimentary and crustal materials into the mantle, providing the most dominant form of heterogeneity in the source of oceanic basalts. Yet, the relationship between geochemical variability and lithologic heterogeneities in the Earth's mantle remains controversial. In this paper, we comprehensively review Zn, δ66Zn and Sr-Nd isotope systematics

The End-Triassic Extinction event (ETE) has been recognized in numerous sections worldwide and it is usually marked by three negative carbon isotope excursions (NCIEs), named “precursor” (P-NCIE), “initial” (I-NCIE) and “main” (M-NCIE) negative carbon isotope excursions. These three NCIEs are significant characteristics of this time interval, and they are likely related to the emplacement of the Central

Redox-sensitive trace metals have been used extensively as geochemical proxies to infer the redox-status of marine sediments at the time of their deposition, and by extension, the concentration of oxygen in the overlying water and atmosphere. However, to reliably apply these paleoredox proxies in ancient sediment samples we must calibrate their geochemical behavior in modern sedimentary environments

Mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORBs) are the most abundant eruptive tholeiitic products on Earth. Many experiments have been performed to investigate the solidification of basalts but under limited thermal ranges of cooling (ΔTc) and cooling rates (ΔT/Δt). We analyze the experimental charges solidified from previous studies: the BIR − 1A basalt from USGS was solidified using ΔT/Δt of 1, 7, 60, 180, 1800

Floods do have multiple aspects: they are integral phenomena by nature. In this paper we deal with the meteorological aspects, which need to be adequately understood in order to understand the occurrence and development of floods. This holds the more as different meteorological environments and accompanying mechanisms can result in different types of heavy precipitation and so in different flood responses

Contrasting models for internal and external locations of South China within the Nuna and Rodinia supercontinents can be resolved when the current lithotectonic associations of Mesoproterozoic and older rocks units that constitute the craton are redefined into four lithotectonic domains: Kongling, Kunming-Hainan, Wuyi, and Coastal. The Kongling and Kunming-Hainan domains are characterized by isolated

Shortening of the continental lithosphere is generally accommodated by the growth of crustal wedges building above megathrusts in the mantle lithosphere. We show that the locus of shortening in the western margin of South America has largely been controlled by the geometry of the slab. Numerical models confirm that horizontal subduction favors compression far from the trench, above the asthenospheric

Shallow-water reef-building corals have an extensive geological record and many aspects of their evolution, biodiversity, and biogeography are known in great details. In contrast, the adaptive potential and risk of extinction of coral reefs in response to excessive warming and ocean acidification remains largely undocumented. It is well established that anthropogenic CO2 emissions cause global warming

This review of studies that quantified fluxes with seepage meters in marine settings in the last decades shows the historical evolution of this device and the knowledge acquired during this period. Coastal environments are differentiated from freshwater settings due to water salinity and the effects of tides and waves that have important implications for the measurement approach and generated results

More than 75 years after its introduction, the seepage meter remains the only device for directly quantifying exchange across the sediment-water interface between groundwater and surface water. This device, first presented in the literature in the 1940s, has been in a state of near-constant improvement and design change, necessitating a review of the history and evolution of the device and a description

The end-Permian mass extinction is the greatest biotic crisis in Earth history causing the extinction of a large number of marine and terrestrial animals globally. However, how land plants responded to the catastrophe remains controversial. The successive plant-bearing beds in China provide a unique window into the great vegetation change through the critical Permian–Triassic time interval. A notable

Tellurium (Te) is a rare metalloid in the chalcogen group of the Periodic Table. Tellurium is regularly listed as a critical raw material both due to its increased use in the solar industry, and to the dependence on other commodities in its supply chain. A thorough understanding of the geo(bio)chemistry of Te in surface environments is fundamental for supporting the search for future sources of Te

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) has become an important tool in detrital zircon geochronology for discriminating and comparing multiple samples, especially where large datasets are concerned. However, the non-parametrical test statistics used in MDS (e.g., Kolmogorov–Smirnov [K-S] or Kuiper) to calculate differences between detrital zircon samples are sensitive to differences in grain age uncertainty

Wave runup is one of the most critical parameters contributing to coastline flooding and shoreline change. Many formulas have been developed to empirically predict wave runup characteristics. However, large errors are still associated to these estimates feeding a debate on the best approach to describe runup through simple parameterizations. In this work we present a comprehensive review on runup,

Cosmogenic nuclide analysis in sediment from the Earth's largest rivers yields mean denudation rates of the sediment-producing areas that average out the local variations commonly found in small rivers. Using this approach, we measured in situ cosmogenic 26Al and 10Be in sand of >50 large rivers over a range of climatic and tectonic regimes covering 32% of the Earth's terrestrial surface. In 35% of

In recent decades, the land-ocean aquatic continuum, commonly defined as the interface, or transition zone, between terrestrial ecosystems and the open ocean, has undergone dramatic changes. On-going work has stressed the importance of treating Aquatic Critical Zones (ACZs) as a sensitive system needing intensive investigation. Here, we discuss fjords as an ACZ in the context of sedimentological, geochemical

Organic carbon in marine sediments is a critical component of the global carbon cycle, and its degradation influences a wide range of phenomena, including the magnitude of carbon sequestration over geologic timescales, the recycling of inorganic carbon and nutrients, the dissolution and precipitation of carbonates, the production of methane and the nature of the seafloor biosphere. Although much has

The Stavelot-Venn Massif (SVM) is the major Cambrian-Ordovician inlier of the Ardenne Allochthon (Southern Belgium). The SVM belongs to the Avalonian microcontinent and was affected by the Caledonian and Variscan orogenies. The Ardenne Allochthon constitutes the northwestern part of the Rheno-Hercynian domain, just south of the Variscan northern front. By contrast, the comparable Avalonian Cambro-Silurian

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this paper reviews current knowledge in the field of natural hydrogen. For the first time, it combines perspectives on hydrogen from the literature of the former Eastern bloc with that of the West, including rare hardcopies and recent studies. Data are summarized and classified in three main sections: hydrogen as a free gas in different environments, as inclusions

Neotethyan ophiolites along the Bangong-Nujiang and Yarlung Tsangpo sutures, Tibetan plateau, consist of mantle peridotite, cumulates, isotropic gabbro, diabase, plagiogranite and basaltic lava. They comprise MORB, IAB, OIB and boninitic rocks, and mostly belong to supra-subduction zone (SSZ) type. Compositionally different rocks crystallized synchronously over a distance of >2000 km along the Bangong-Nujiang

Freeze-thaw weathering is an important surface process and the complex underlying processes can be understood as an interplay between rock properties and its dynamic environment. Multiple researchers coming from different scientific disciplines have contributed to the present-day knowledge on the matter and misconceptions still prevail. In a changing climate, the multidisciplinary insights into freeze-thaw

Over the past decades, researchers have given increasing attention to the modelling of the spatial correlation of earthquake ground motion intensity measures (IMs), particularly when the seismic risk of spatially distributed systems is being assessed. The quantification of the seismic performance of these systems requires the estimation of simultaneous IMs at multiple locations during the same earthquake

Fossil shells of benthos and nektobenthos have been shown to be faithful recorders of seawater carbon- and oxygen-isotope geochemistry, and thus also useful to track the relationship between carbon cycle and palaeotemperature. In this study we present an extensive dataset from Lower Jurassic (Hettangian and lower Sinemurian) mollusc and brachiopod hard parts collected from biostratigraphically well-calibrated

The upper Stormberg Group (Elliot and Clarens formations) of the main Karoo Basin is well-known for its fossil vertebrate fauna, comprising early branching members of lineages including mammals, dinosaurs, and testudinates. Despite 150 years of scientific study, the upper Stormberg Group lacks radioisotopic age constraints and remains coarsely dated via imprecise faunal correlations. Here we synthesise

Converging research in modern environments, stratigraphy, numerical modeling, and physical experiments introduce new ideas and reinforce prior thinking on the complex and partial nature of the stratigraphic record. Through different vantages they each ask the question, ‘what does the rock record actually record?’ These studies show the stratigraphic record to be highly incomplete across multiple time

The opening of the South Atlantic in the Early Cretaceous was the final stage of the complex rifting history of SW Gondwana. In this contribution we reassess the chronology of Mesozoic basin formation in southern South America and Africa and integrate it in the long-term breakup history of SW Gondwana. Triassic rifting is characterized by intracontinental rifting in Africa (Karoo I phase), and retro-arc

Sequence stratigraphy is commonly used to understand basin history and the distribution of conventional reservoir facies. Establishing a sequence stratigraphic framework in organic-rich mudstone successions is challenging because macroscale sedimentological and petrophysical variations can be subtle, while biostratigraphic and seismic data may be unavailable or of limited use. For these reasons, it