A new study links geological factors such as faulting and geothermal activity to an elevated risk of arsenic contamination in private wells across the Great Basin.
Earth’s crust
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Topography Along the Apennines Reflects Subduction Dynamics
Topography and exhumation vary strongly along the Apennines, reflecting the geometry of the Moho and different geodynamic mechanisms.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Mapping the Fizzy Brines and Fluid-Filled Fractures Below a Volcano
Seismic tools reveal where hydrothermal fluids lie beneath the Uturuncu volcano in Bolivia and hint at their composition.
Posted inEditors' Vox
The Seven-Ages of Earth as Seen Through the Continental Lens
The 4.5-billion-year record contained in Earth’s continental crust reveals a seven-phase evolution, from an initial magma ocean to the present-day environment in which we live.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Small-Scale Convection Shuffles the Oceanic Lithosphere
Seafloor spreading organized lithospheric minerals into a lattice, but small-scale convection jumbled up the innermost layer.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Feedbacks Between Deformation and Magmatism as Shear Zones Grow
New research reveals how the presence and absence of magmatism governs how shear zones initiate, grow, and reactivate to connect lower and upper crustal deformation.
Posted inNews
Early Life Learned to Love Oxygen Long Before It Was Cool
Laboratory experiments show that earthquakes may have helped early life evolve in an oxygen-free world.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
New Map of Proposed Mantle-Driven Topography Stirs the Pot
The role the deep Earth plays in creating topography is hotly debated. A new study uses subtle elevation changes around the globe as evidence that the mantle plays a key role in building topography.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Old Igneous Rocks Hold the Key to Crustal Thickness Evolution
The chemical composition of orogenic igneous rocks and their zircons is sensitive to crustal thickness and can be used to quantify the evolution of Moho depths beneath continents back in time.