Conglomerates are widespread clastic rock, often occurring in thick successions and supporting complex geomorphological landscapes. Yet, by contrast to some other rock types, little systematic work has been done on geomorphology of conglomeratic terrains, major geographical gaps exist, and no review has been offered up to now. This paper partially fills this gap and provides an overview of characteristic

The temporal and spatial distribution of Hirnantian brachiopod faunas are reviewed based on a new, comprehensive dataset from over 20 palaeoplates and terranes, a revised correlation scheme for Hirnantian strata and numerical methods including network analysis. There were two successive evolutionary faunas: 1. widespread and diachronous Hirnantia Fauna related to the glacial acme in the early−mid Hirnantian

The Oulad Dlim Massif, located west of the Archean part of the Reguibat Rise of the West African Craton, has an areal extent close to 36,000 km2. Despite its tectonic importance, as it may have been the main indenter during the late Paleozoic Laurentia-Gondwana collision that formed supercontinent Pangea, this region has remained unstudied for a long time. Based on previous research done by Spanish

Long-term variations in eustatic sea level in an ice-free world, which existed through most of the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic eras, are partly driven by changes in the volume of ocean basins. Previous studies have determined ocean basin volume changes from plate tectonic reconstructions since the Mesozoic; however, these studies have not considered a number of important elements that contribute to

This article discusses the properties and occurrence of an active layer (AL) in the near-surface of the lithosphere in glacial and periglacial environments. This layer shows a seasonal variability in temperature, as a result of the climate. The AL, as classically understood, seasonally thaws and freezes, while in glacial environments it usually only reaches 0 °C. The definition of AL is currently not

Abiotic, Bioinduced and Biocontrolled carbonates are process-based sediment categories. They successively reflect increasing levels of biotic control over carbonate precipitation from aqueous solutions, are often closely linked to depositional environment, and change with time. Hybrid Carbonates are intimate in situ combinations of two or more of these categories. Hybrid Carbonates are widespread and

Sandy braided dryland rivers, deposited under arid to semi-arid conditions, constitute important clastic reservoirs worldwide whose reservoir quality reflects the effect of primary sediment properties on near-surface diagenetic processes. A literature review is presented of existing facies models, based on geomorphological analysis of modern perennial braided rivers, further illustrated with own outcrop

Sandy soils are widely distributed across the world. Due to the growing global population and urbanization, these soils are increasingly used to provide food, feed, fiber, energy, and other services to our society. In this paper, we summarize some recent studies on sandy soils and review the main soil and environmental issues related to the understanding, use, and management. We classify the soil issues

The end-Triassic mass extinction coincided with the eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, a large igneous province responsible for the massive atmospheric input of potentially climate-altering volatile compounds that is associated with a sharp rise in atmospheric CO2. The extinction mechanism is debated, but both short-term cooling (~10s of years) related to sulfur aerosols and longer-term

Current understanding of the long-term carbon cycle posits that Earth's climate is stabilized by a negative feedback involving CO2 consumption by chemical weathering of silicate minerals. This theory holds that silicate weathering responds to climate: when atmospheric pCO2 and surface temperatures rise, chemical weathering accelerates, consuming more atmospheric CO2 and cooling global climate; when

Silicic magmas play an important role in the formation of continental crust and are responsible for some of the most hazardous volcanic eruptions on the planet. Low-δ18O silicic magmas (δ18O < 5.5 ‰) have been a petrological conundrum as they require significant incorporation of rocks that were hydrothermally altered by meteoric water at high water/rock ratios in the shallow, permeable, and relatively

The cycles of phosphorus, carbon and oxygen are intimately linked. Indeed, in many models, phosphorus is considered the driver of the carbon and oxygen cycles, and low concentrations of atmospheric oxygen during the Mesoproterozoic Era have been linked to extreme phosphorus limitation in the Mesoproterozoic oceans. To evaluate the Mesoproterozoic Era phosphorus cycle, we analyze the concentrations

Seismology has come a long way in providing insights into Earth's internal structure and dynamics. Among many forward and inverse geophysical techniques developed, full waveform modelling, seismic tomography and receiver-based studies enabled detailed imaging of Earth's subsurface. The invention of ambient noise tomography within the last two decades revolutionized studies of Earth's subsurface based

The Archean era (4 to 2.5 billion years ago, Ga) yielded rocks that include the oldest conclusive traces of life as well as many controversial occurrences. Carbonaceous matter is found in rocks as old as 3.95 Ga, but the oldest (graphitic) forms may be abiogenic. Due to the metamorphism that altered the molecular composition of all Archean organic matter, non-biological carbonaceous compounds such

In the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), whether substantial juvenile additions associated with accretionary orogenesis are preserved is still a pending issue. The Yili Block (YB) is a micro-continent in the Western Tianshan, SW CAOB. Voluminous felsic rocks constitute two major belts stretching in the southern and northern margins of the YB. We synthetically compile up-to-date zircon U-Pb geochronological

This paper reviews recent progress in tsunami geology and the history of coastal uplift/subsidence along the Pacific coasts of Hokkaido and Tohoku, facing the Kuril and Japan Trenches, respectively. In the last 20 years, research by tsunami geologists in northeast Japan has focused on extending the record of tsunamis beyond the range of historical documents in the region, which span too little time

A key question in sustainable development is how much alteration in natural systems, such as river basins, is acceptable? One of the ways by which humans alter a river basin is by building water storage infrastructure. While storage reservoirs deliver numerous benefits, they can also induce social and environmental costs by displacing people, fragmenting river networks and altering downstream flow

Sinuous collapse chains and skylights in lunar and Martian volcanic regions have often been interpreted as collapsed lava tubes (also known as pyroducts). This hypothesis has fostered a forty years debate among planetary geologists trying to define if analogue volcano-speleogenetic processes acting on Earth could have created similar subsurface linear voids in extra-terrestrial volcanoes. On Earth

The end-Triassic mass extinction was one of the big five crises of the fossil record. It affected diverse marine groups, including bivalves, brachiopods, ostracods, calcareous algae, radiolarians, and tetrapods and coincided with major changes in palynological assemblages. The rapidity of the event has long been debated and here we show that it can be resolved into two distinct, short-lived extinction

Parasequences were introduced as the building blocks of seismic-scale systems tracts in the context of low-resolution seismic stratigraphy. Pitfalls of this concept relate to the definition of parasequence boundaries as lithological discontinuities that mark episodes of abrupt water deepening. With this general meaning, ‘flooding surfaces’ may be facies contacts within transgressive deposits, or may

The giant Jiaodong gold province, with more than 5000 t of proven gold resources, is unique in that its Mesozoic gold deposits are hosted in a Precambrian basement block. There has long been debate on the source of gold, the mechanism for its extreme enrichment, and a holistic genetic model for these spectacular deposits. In order to improve understanding of these factors, a mineral-system model is

Ostriches (Struthionidae) are iconic Old-World giant flightless birds. The two living African species represent only a small part of ancient struthionid diversity, which comprises a number of fossil taxa, including the largest known birds of Northern Hemisphere – Pleistocene giants Pachystruthio. In comparison with most other birds, ostriches have an extensive fossil record, mostly represented by eggshell

The wide distribution of natural lakes over the Tibetan Plateau, the highest and largest plateau on Earth, have received extensive attention due to global warming. In this Review, we examine lake evolution, spatial patterns and driving mechanisms over the Tibetan Plateau. The changes in lake area, level and volume show a slight decrease from 1976 to the mid-1990s, followed by a continuous rapid increase

We synthesize the current understanding of glacier activity on Svalbard from the end of the Late Pleistocene (12,000 yrs. before present) to the end of the Little Ice Age (c. 1920 AD). Our glacier history is derived from the SVALHOLA database, the first compilation of Holocene geochronology for Svalbard and the surrounding waters, including over 1,800 radiocarbon, terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide and

The Apennines-Sicilian-Maghrebian fold-and-thrust belt originated from the subduction of the Alpine Tethys and the later collision of drifted continental blocks against the African and Apulian paleomargins. From North to South, the Sicilian Fold-and-Thrust Belt (SFTB) is divided in four main tectono-stratigraphic domains: (1) the Calabro-Peloritani terrane, drifted from the European margin, (2) the

Natural organic matter (NOM) is an important redox-active component in soils and aquifers that comprises numerous functional moieties spanning a wide range of redox potentials. Tracking reversible electron transfer from and to NOM in biogeochemical redox processes has been a challenge for decades. Reasons include side reactions of reactants used to determine the redox state of NOM and slow reaction

We thank Stephen Hesselbo and his colleagues for their thoughtful Comment (henceforth, “Hetal-20”) on our article (Remírez and Algeo, 2020a, henceforth “R&A-20” as in their Comment), which provides us an opportunity to elaborate upon several key issues related to our study. R&A-20 presents evidence for a large decrease in salinity within the Cleveland Basin (U.K.) during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic

The Central Andes between 18°S and 36°S latitude strike north-south for 2000 km along the Chilean subduction margin, cross several climate zones from hyperarid to humid and exhibit mean elevations in excess of 4000 m.a.s.l. Here, we investigate the relationships between tectonics, climate and exhumation by inverting low-temperature thermochronological data compiled from the literature (824 ages from

New U-Pb geochronology and a large and growing geochemical data base has clarified the age and composition of the extensive magmatic belts of NE Russia, allowing a better understanding of their relation to the plate tectonic evolution of the circum- Pacific margins of Russia, Alaska and the North American Cordillera, as well as to plate tectonic events that formed the Arctic Ocean. Prior to the magmatism

Delineating the climatic boundary (i.e., of precipitation and temperature) in the northern Tibetan Plateau and along its margins is important for understanding the dynamics of global atmospheric circulation and the processes of dust production in central Asia. To date, however, meteorological data are scarce for this vast region, which limits our understanding of regional climatic patterns and past

Modes of climate variability affect global and regional climates on different spatio-temporal scales, and they have important impacts on human activities and ecosystems. As these modes are a useful tool for simplifying the understanding of the climate system, it is crucial that we gain improved knowledge of their long-term past evolution and interactions over time to contextualise their present and

During the past two decades significant progress has been made in understanding the origin and evolution of kimberlites, including relationships to other diamondiferous magma types such as lamproites and aillikites. However, the association of kimberlites and carbonatites on continental shields remains poorly understood, and two opposing ideas dominate the debate. While one school of thought argues

This study presents an overview of Mesozoic transgressions that influenced the palaeogeography of central India, and offers an analysis of the existing evidence for the interpretation of the depositional record of infra- and inter-trappean sequences. These data are then used to understand the respective palaeogeographic settings of the Narmada and the Godavari master valleys, leading to a reappraisal

We disagree on many basic aspects of the Cambrian–Triassic tectonic reconstruction of central Qiangtang, Tibet, proposed by Xu et al. (2020) (Earth-Science Reviews, v. 201, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103083), because their reconstructions are inconsistent with geological evidence. The allochthonous fragments in the accretionary complex of the Shuanghu suture zone should not be used

The Early Jurassic Toarcian oceanic anoxic event (T-OAE) is characterized by an extinction event, a major sea-level rise, enhanced marine primary productivity, elevated seawater temperatures, widespread deposition of organic-rich sediments, and a negative carbon-isotope excursion (CIE). However, the T-OAE exhibits significant interregional variation in its expression, with strong spatial variation

The evolution of Grand Canyon started ~85 Ma when the southwestern Hualapai Plateau section of the Colorado Plateau began uplifting. This uplift initiated a northeast-trending drainage/canyon system (“Laramide paleo-Grand Canyon”) that was to constrain all later routes, including that of the Colorado River. This drainage proceeded down dip but up the stratigraphic section so that northward incision

In this paper, we test the recent hypothesis of the occurrence of five to seven tsunami generations, that would have struck the ancient harbour basin of Ostia (Italy), and the lower channel of the Tiber River during the last three millennia. Because these steady disaster events would have deep implications on our knowledge of the history of Rome, we reviewed the pluridisciplinary data available at

Soil organic carbon tracing can provide important information for effective and accurate management of soil erosion. Selecting the ideal tracing method is one of the basic elements of soil organic carbon tracing. Compared to other tracing methods, tracing approaches using biomarkers have great potential for determining land-use based soil organic carbon sources in sediment. To improve the accuracy

The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) is regarded as the most severe biotic crisis in Earth history, which is particularly well-documented in the marine fossil record. Despite compelling evidence that dramatic global environmental changes probably drove this extinction event, its effects on terrestrial plants are still highly controversial. Here we present Changhsingian (latest Permian) to late Smithian

Several studies have highlighted the persistent lack of impact that African researchers have in international science. To examine this in the geosciences, we reviewed the representation and contribution of African authors using a bibliometric study of international high-impact geoscience journals. Detailed metadata from all articles (n = 182,996) published in these journals (n = 21), and from two Africa-based

The study of outcrop analogues of petroleum reservoirs is well established in the petroleum industry through the use of digital outcrop models (DOMs). These models, which are also known as virtual outcrop models (VOMs) or 3D outcrops, are of great importance for understanding the behavior of actual reservoirs. This topic has been reviewed by many authors, and the studies vary in detail according to

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

Marine authigenic carbonates form shallow-water microbialites, mud mounds, and hydrocarbon-seep deposits and contain appreciable amounts of trace elements that yield information on paleoenvironments. Element patterns of some of these carbonates archive metabolic processes through geologic time since many trace elements are redox-sensitive and participate in biological cycling. Trace element distributions

Sediment-generation models need an accurate specification of the fundamental properties of parent rocks and their variability at the scale of first-order (mono-lithologic) drainage basins. Georeferenced point-count data of five extensively surveyed plutons were extracted from the literature to examine the spatial variability of modal composition in granitoids. Point-count data must be considered inherently

Ophiolites are important archives of oceanic crust development and preservation in the rock record, and the Alpine-Himalayan Orogenic Belt (AHOB) is one of the most comprehensive ophiolite depositories in earth’s history. We have compiled published data on the field occurrences and geochemistry from 137 AHOB ophiolites, ranging in age from Triassic through Cretaceous, in order to characterize the nature

The end Pliensbachian–Toarcian is characterized by several carbon-cycle perturbations and faunal turnovers (e.g., ammonites and foraminifera), which are most likely triggered by pulses of the Karoo-Ferrar-Chon Aike large igneous province. The majority of information about these events is based on detailed studies of sites deposited in deep-water settings, which leaves vast uncertainties about the expression

Ostracoda from non-marine waters have a significant potential role in monitoring ecological conditions and reconstructing paleoenvironments. During the last decades, the increase in research on ostracods on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has been achieved, although there are still taxonomical and ecological problems in their application in Quaternary studies. The aim of this review is to summarize the occurrences

Large igneous provinces on Earth result from anomalously enormous volcanic eruptions at high melt production rates. These eruptions are often linked to catastrophic events such as mass extinctions, global climate changes, or continental break-up. Decoding their petrogenesis is therefore of great importance for our comprehensive understanding of the evolution and geodynamics of our planet. The ~260 Ma

This contribution investigates mechanisms controlling subduction development and stabilization over time (coined as 'slabitization'), from a nascent slab to a mature slab viscously coupled to mantle convection, from grain scale to plate tectonics scale. Frozen-in, deep and warm portions of the subduction plate interface with both sides still preserved are found at the base of ophiolites in almost pristine

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 AD) 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

Soil nitrogen (N) availability, which is crucial to plant growth, largely relies on the turnover of soil organic N into inorganic N through mineralization. However, the patterns and drivers of global soil N turnover rates (NTR) have not been carefully examined so far. We compiled a dataset that consists of 1175 observations from 159 published articles across various terrestrial ecosystems in the world

Integrated geographic modelling and simulation is a computational means to improve understanding of the environment. With the development of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and web technologies, it is possible to conduct open, extensible integrated geographic modelling across a network in which resources can be accessed and integrated, and further distributed geographic simulations can be performed

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

Intraplate basin/structural inversion (indicating tectonic shortening) is a good marker of (“far-field”) tectonic stress regime changes that are linked to plate geometries and interactions, a premise that is qualitatively well-established in the literature. There is also quantitative evidence that Late Cretaceous-Palaeocene inversion of sedimentary basins in north-central Europe was explicitly driven

Heavy minerals are typically rare but important components of siliciclastic sediments and rocks. Their abundance, proportions, and variability carry valuable information on source rocks, climatic, environmental and transport conditions between source to sink, and diagenetic processes. They are important for practical purposes such as prospecting for mineral resources or the correlation and interpretation

This review article deals with bank erosion from the perspective of rivers affected by seasonal ice formation. These rivers drain half of the terrestrial land surface globally, and are mainly located in both periglacial and cold, non-periglacial environments across the Northern Hemisphere. This review is based on a literature survey of 126 publications (articles, technical reports, conference papers

This paper identifies and discusses the major phases of relief evolution resulting from fluvial processes during the Late Quaternary in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero (QF) region (Atlantic Plateau) and contextualises them as strong indicators of the past tectonic and climatic influences on landscape evolution in the Brazilian highlands. Seven regional phases of fluvial level development (terraces and modern