Pub Date : 2024-09-06DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01528-9
Jolante van Wijk
The processes that control the deformation and eventual destruction of Earth’s oldest continental crust are unclear. Mantle flow models suggest subduction played a role in the deformation of the North China Craton.
{"title":"The oldest parts of continents are falling apart","authors":"Jolante van Wijk","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01528-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01528-9","url":null,"abstract":"The processes that control the deformation and eventual destruction of Earth’s oldest continental crust are unclear. Mantle flow models suggest subduction played a role in the deformation of the North China Craton.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 9","pages":"820-821"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142142727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-06DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01525-y
Melinda A. Webster, Aku Riihelä, Sahra Kacimi, Thomas J. Ballinger, Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, Chelsea L. Parker, Linette Boisvert
Since the 1970s, Arctic sea ice has undergone unprecedented change, becoming thinner, less extensive and less resilient to summer melt. Snow’s high albedo greatly reduces solar absorption in sea ice and the upper ocean, which mitigates sea–ice melt and ocean warming. However, the drivers of summertime snow depth variability are unknown. The Arctic Oscillation is a mode of natural climate variability, influencing Arctic snowfall and air temperatures. Thus, it may affect summertime snow conditions on Arctic sea ice. Here we examine the role of the Arctic Oscillation in summer snow depth variability on Arctic sea ice in 1980–2020 using atmospheric reanalysis, snow modelling and satellite data. The positive phase leads to greater snow accumulation, ranging up to ~4.5 cm near the North Pole, and higher surface albedo in summer. There are more intense, frequent Arctic cyclones, cooler temperatures aloft and greater snowfall relative to negative and neutral phases; these conditions facilitate a more persistent summer snow cover, which may lessen sea-ice melt and ocean warming. The Arctic Oscillation influence on summertime snow weakens after 2007, which suggests that future warming and Arctic sea-ice loss might modify the relationship between the Arctic Oscillation and snow on Arctic sea ice. Summer snow accumulation and its albedo effect on Arctic sea ice are controlled by the Arctic Oscillation atmospheric circulation pattern, according to a combined modelling and remote sensing analysis.
{"title":"Summer snow on Arctic sea ice modulated by the Arctic Oscillation","authors":"Melinda A. Webster, Aku Riihelä, Sahra Kacimi, Thomas J. Ballinger, Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, Chelsea L. Parker, Linette Boisvert","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01525-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01525-y","url":null,"abstract":"Since the 1970s, Arctic sea ice has undergone unprecedented change, becoming thinner, less extensive and less resilient to summer melt. Snow’s high albedo greatly reduces solar absorption in sea ice and the upper ocean, which mitigates sea–ice melt and ocean warming. However, the drivers of summertime snow depth variability are unknown. The Arctic Oscillation is a mode of natural climate variability, influencing Arctic snowfall and air temperatures. Thus, it may affect summertime snow conditions on Arctic sea ice. Here we examine the role of the Arctic Oscillation in summer snow depth variability on Arctic sea ice in 1980–2020 using atmospheric reanalysis, snow modelling and satellite data. The positive phase leads to greater snow accumulation, ranging up to ~4.5 cm near the North Pole, and higher surface albedo in summer. There are more intense, frequent Arctic cyclones, cooler temperatures aloft and greater snowfall relative to negative and neutral phases; these conditions facilitate a more persistent summer snow cover, which may lessen sea-ice melt and ocean warming. The Arctic Oscillation influence on summertime snow weakens after 2007, which suggests that future warming and Arctic sea-ice loss might modify the relationship between the Arctic Oscillation and snow on Arctic sea ice. Summer snow accumulation and its albedo effect on Arctic sea ice are controlled by the Arctic Oscillation atmospheric circulation pattern, according to a combined modelling and remote sensing analysis.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 10","pages":"995-1002"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01525-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142142729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-05DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01526-x
A re-evaluation of global land-to-ocean carbon exports using a multi-model ensemble and a database of observations reveals that the export of carbon by rivers is 20% higher than that reported in the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment. These findings underscore the important contribution of riverine carbon to the carbon budget.
{"title":"An ensemble assessment to improve estimates of land-to-ocean carbon fluxes","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01526-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01526-x","url":null,"abstract":"A re-evaluation of global land-to-ocean carbon exports using a multi-model ensemble and a database of observations reveals that the export of carbon by rivers is 20% higher than that reported in the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment. These findings underscore the important contribution of riverine carbon to the carbon budget.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 9","pages":"829-830"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142138168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-05DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01524-z
Maodian Liu, Peter A. Raymond, Ronny Lauerwald, Qianru Zhang, Gerrit Trapp-Müller, Kay L. Davis, Nils Moosdorf, Changhao Xiao, Jack J. Middelburg, Alexander F. Bouwman, Arthur H. W. Beusen, Changhui Peng, Fabrice Lacroix, Hanqin Tian, Junjie Wang, Mingxu Li, Qiuan Zhu, Sagy Cohen, Wim J. van Hoek, Ya Li, Yangmingkai Li, Yuanzhi Yao, Pierre Regnier
Rivers are a key component of the global carbon cycle. They receive vast quantities of terrestrial carbon, of which a large fraction is ultimately exported to the coastal ocean. Our review of previously published assessments reveals that substantial uncertainties remain with regard to the spatial distribution and speciation of the carbon export. Accurate quantification of the relative contributions of dissolved, particulate, organic and inorganic carbon to the total amounts is, however, of crucial importance for the coupling between the terrestrial and marine carbon cycles. Breaking down existing spatially explicit assessments over large river basins, we find a disagreement in flux estimates that exceeds two orders of magnitude for more than half of the basins. Using machine-learning techniques in combination with a multi-model ensemble and an updated database of observations, we overcome the inconsistencies in existing assessments and narrow down uncertainties in riverine carbon exports. Our revised assessment yields a global riverine export of 1.02 ± 0.22 (2σ) PgC yr−1. This carbon flux is partitioned into 0.52 ± 0.17, 0.30 ± 0.14, 0.18 ± 0.04 and 0.03 ± 0.02 PgC yr−1 of dissolved inorganic, dissolved organic, particulate organic and particulate inorganic carbon, respectively. We estimate the carbon contribution through groundwater export to be minor (0.016 PgC yr−1). Our assessment suggests an underestimation of the land-to-ocean carbon flux by 0.24 PgC yr−1 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and calls for a revision of the oceanic carbon budget. Global riverine carbon export to the ocean may exceed previous estimates, underscoring the important role of riverine carbon to the carbon budget, according to a multi-model ensemble assessment constrained by a global dataset.
河流是全球碳循环的重要组成部分。它们接收了大量的陆地碳，其中很大一部分最终被输出到沿岸海洋。我们对以前公布的评估结果进行了回顾，发现在碳输出的空间分布和种类方面仍然存在很大的不确定性。然而，准确量化溶解碳、颗粒碳、有机碳和无机碳对总量的相对贡献，对陆地碳循环和海洋碳循环之间的耦合至关重要。对现有的大河流域空间明确评估进行细分后，我们发现在一半以上的流域中，通量估计值的差异超过了两个数量级。利用机器学习技术，结合多模型集合和最新的观测数据库，我们克服了现有评估中的不一致性，缩小了河流碳输出的不确定性。我们修订后的评估得出全球河流碳输出量为 1.02 ± 0.22 (2σ) PgC yr-1。该碳通量分别为 0.52 ± 0.17、0.30 ± 0.14、0.18 ± 0.04 和 0.03 ± 0.02 PgC yr-1 的溶解无机碳、溶解有机碳、颗粒有机碳和颗粒无机碳。我们估计通过地下水输出的碳贡献很小（0.016 PgC yr-1）。我们的评估表明，政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）低估了陆地到海洋的碳通量 0.24 PgC yr-1，并呼吁修订海洋碳预算。
{"title":"Global riverine land-to-ocean carbon export constrained by observations and multi-model assessment","authors":"Maodian Liu, Peter A. Raymond, Ronny Lauerwald, Qianru Zhang, Gerrit Trapp-Müller, Kay L. Davis, Nils Moosdorf, Changhao Xiao, Jack J. Middelburg, Alexander F. Bouwman, Arthur H. W. Beusen, Changhui Peng, Fabrice Lacroix, Hanqin Tian, Junjie Wang, Mingxu Li, Qiuan Zhu, Sagy Cohen, Wim J. van Hoek, Ya Li, Yangmingkai Li, Yuanzhi Yao, Pierre Regnier","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01524-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01524-z","url":null,"abstract":"Rivers are a key component of the global carbon cycle. They receive vast quantities of terrestrial carbon, of which a large fraction is ultimately exported to the coastal ocean. Our review of previously published assessments reveals that substantial uncertainties remain with regard to the spatial distribution and speciation of the carbon export. Accurate quantification of the relative contributions of dissolved, particulate, organic and inorganic carbon to the total amounts is, however, of crucial importance for the coupling between the terrestrial and marine carbon cycles. Breaking down existing spatially explicit assessments over large river basins, we find a disagreement in flux estimates that exceeds two orders of magnitude for more than half of the basins. Using machine-learning techniques in combination with a multi-model ensemble and an updated database of observations, we overcome the inconsistencies in existing assessments and narrow down uncertainties in riverine carbon exports. Our revised assessment yields a global riverine export of 1.02 ± 0.22 (2σ) PgC yr−1. This carbon flux is partitioned into 0.52 ± 0.17, 0.30 ± 0.14, 0.18 ± 0.04 and 0.03 ± 0.02 PgC yr−1 of dissolved inorganic, dissolved organic, particulate organic and particulate inorganic carbon, respectively. We estimate the carbon contribution through groundwater export to be minor (0.016 PgC yr−1). Our assessment suggests an underestimation of the land-to-ocean carbon flux by 0.24 PgC yr−1 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and calls for a revision of the oceanic carbon budget. Global riverine carbon export to the ocean may exceed previous estimates, underscoring the important role of riverine carbon to the carbon budget, according to a multi-model ensemble assessment constrained by a global dataset.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 9","pages":"896-904"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142138169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-03DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01521-2
A global analysis of post-fire vegetation productivity recovery reveals that the recovery time shows spatial variations across vegetation types and regions. The dominant factors that influence the recovery time in the majority of the global burned area are the post-fire climate conditions, such as soil moisture, vapour pressure deficit and air temperature.
{"title":"Spatial heterogeneity in post-fire vegetation productivity recovery and its drivers","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01521-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01521-2","url":null,"abstract":"A global analysis of post-fire vegetation productivity recovery reveals that the recovery time shows spatial variations across vegetation types and regions. The dominant factors that influence the recovery time in the majority of the global burned area are the post-fire climate conditions, such as soil moisture, vapour pressure deficit and air temperature.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 9","pages":"831-832"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142123576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-02DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01533-y
This study investigates the history of graphitic carbon in two ancient North American mountain belts related to Nuna supercontinent assembly. Using rhenium–osmium and uranium–lead dating, the research reveals that biogenic graphite was hydrothermally remobilized in shear zones during late orogenesis, indicating periodic carbon cycling over 200 million years.
{"title":"Graphite preserved in ancient mountain belts linked to supercontinent assembly","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01533-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01533-y","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the history of graphitic carbon in two ancient North American mountain belts related to Nuna supercontinent assembly. Using rhenium–osmium and uranium–lead dating, the research reveals that biogenic graphite was hydrothermally remobilized in shear zones during late orogenesis, indicating periodic carbon cycling over 200 million years.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 10","pages":"959-960"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142118179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-02DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01522-1
Wildfires are a natural disturbance in Arctic and boreal regions, but unprecedented wildfire extremes over the past decade have been linked to climate warming. Tracking fires at high temporal resolution reveals a large spatial variability in Arctic–boreal fire regimes driven by environmental and anthropogenic factors, which also modulate the climate sensitivity of different regions.
{"title":"Humans modulate the climate sensitivity of Arctic–boreal wildfires","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01522-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01522-1","url":null,"abstract":"Wildfires are a natural disturbance in Arctic and boreal regions, but unprecedented wildfire extremes over the past decade have been linked to climate warming. Tracking fires at high temporal resolution reveals a large spatial variability in Arctic–boreal fire regimes driven by environmental and anthropogenic factors, which also modulate the climate sensitivity of different regions.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 9","pages":"827-828"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142118159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-02DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01505-2
Rebecca C. Scholten, Sander Veraverbeke, Yang Chen, James T. Randerson
Wildfire activity in Arctic and boreal regions is rapidly increasing, with severe consequences for climate and human health. Regional long-term variations in fire frequency and intensity characterize fire regimes. The spatial variability in Arctic–boreal fire regimes and their environmental and anthropogenic drivers, however, remain poorly understood. Here we present a fire tracking system to map the sub-daily evolution of all circumpolar Arctic–boreal fires between 2012 and 2023 using 375 m Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite active fire detections and the resulting dataset of the ignition time, location, size, duration, spread and intensity of individual fires. We use this dataset to classify the Arctic–boreal biomes into seven distinct ‘pyroregions’ with unique climatic and geographic environments. We find that these pyroregions exhibit varying responses to environmental drivers, with boreal North America, eastern Siberia and northern tundra regions showing the highest sensitivity to climate and lightning density. In addition, anthropogenic factors play an important role in influencing fire number and size, interacting with other factors. Understanding the spatial variability of fire regimes and its interconnected drivers in the Arctic–boreal domain is important for improving future predictions of fire activity and identifying areas at risk for extreme events. Arctic–boreal biomes vary regionally in the sensitivity of their fire regime to climate, according to an analysis of properties of individual fires measured by satellite radiometry.
{"title":"Spatial variability in Arctic–boreal fire regimes influenced by environmental and human factors","authors":"Rebecca C. Scholten, Sander Veraverbeke, Yang Chen, James T. Randerson","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01505-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01505-2","url":null,"abstract":"Wildfire activity in Arctic and boreal regions is rapidly increasing, with severe consequences for climate and human health. Regional long-term variations in fire frequency and intensity characterize fire regimes. The spatial variability in Arctic–boreal fire regimes and their environmental and anthropogenic drivers, however, remain poorly understood. Here we present a fire tracking system to map the sub-daily evolution of all circumpolar Arctic–boreal fires between 2012 and 2023 using 375 m Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite active fire detections and the resulting dataset of the ignition time, location, size, duration, spread and intensity of individual fires. We use this dataset to classify the Arctic–boreal biomes into seven distinct ‘pyroregions’ with unique climatic and geographic environments. We find that these pyroregions exhibit varying responses to environmental drivers, with boreal North America, eastern Siberia and northern tundra regions showing the highest sensitivity to climate and lightning density. In addition, anthropogenic factors play an important role in influencing fire number and size, interacting with other factors. Understanding the spatial variability of fire regimes and its interconnected drivers in the Arctic–boreal domain is important for improving future predictions of fire activity and identifying areas at risk for extreme events. Arctic–boreal biomes vary regionally in the sensitivity of their fire regime to climate, according to an analysis of properties of individual fires measured by satellite radiometry.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 9","pages":"866-873"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01505-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142118183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-02DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01529-8
Deformation experiments and piezoelectric modelling show that the electric charge generated by quartz crystals is capable of depositing dissolved gold. These results suggest that the piezoelectric activity of quartz might drive gold nugget formation from hydrothermal solutions in earthquake settings.
{"title":"Gold nugget formation from piezoelectric quartz","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01529-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01529-8","url":null,"abstract":"Deformation experiments and piezoelectric modelling show that the electric charge generated by quartz crystals is capable of depositing dissolved gold. These results suggest that the piezoelectric activity of quartz might drive gold nugget formation from hydrothermal solutions in earthquake settings.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 9","pages":"823-824"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142118180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-02DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01514-1
Christopher R. Voisey, Nicholas J. R. Hunter, Andrew G. Tomkins, Joël Brugger, Weihua Liu, Yang Liu, Vladimir Luzin
Gold nuggets occur predominantly in quartz veins, and the current paradigm posits that gold precipitates from dilute (<1 mg kg−1 gold), hot, water ± carbon dioxide-rich fluids owing to changes in temperature, pressure and/or fluid chemistry. However, the widespread occurrence of large gold nuggets is at odds with the dilute nature of these fluids and the chemical inertness of quartz. Quartz is the only abundant piezoelectric mineral on Earth, and the cyclical nature of earthquake activity that drives orogenic gold deposit formation means that quartz crystals in veins will experience thousands of episodes of deviatoric stress. Here we use quartz deformation experiments and piezoelectric modelling to investigate whether piezoelectric discharge from quartz can explain the ubiquitous gold–quartz association and the formation of gold nuggets. We find that stress on quartz crystals can generate enough voltage to electrochemically deposit aqueous gold from solution as well as accumulate gold nanoparticles. Nucleation of gold via piezo-driven reactions is rate-limiting because quartz is an insulator; however, since gold is a conductor, our results show that existing gold grains are the focus of ongoing growth. We suggest this mechanism can help explain the creation of large nuggets and the commonly observed highly interconnected gold networks within quartz vein fractures. Quartz emits a piezoelectric charge during deformation that may promote the formation of gold nuggets within veins in orogenic settings that experience earthquakes, according to a study using quartz deformation experiments and piezoelectric modelling.
{"title":"Gold nugget formation from earthquake-induced piezoelectricity in quartz","authors":"Christopher R. Voisey, Nicholas J. R. Hunter, Andrew G. Tomkins, Joël Brugger, Weihua Liu, Yang Liu, Vladimir Luzin","doi":"10.1038/s41561-024-01514-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41561-024-01514-1","url":null,"abstract":"Gold nuggets occur predominantly in quartz veins, and the current paradigm posits that gold precipitates from dilute (<1 mg kg−1 gold), hot, water ± carbon dioxide-rich fluids owing to changes in temperature, pressure and/or fluid chemistry. However, the widespread occurrence of large gold nuggets is at odds with the dilute nature of these fluids and the chemical inertness of quartz. Quartz is the only abundant piezoelectric mineral on Earth, and the cyclical nature of earthquake activity that drives orogenic gold deposit formation means that quartz crystals in veins will experience thousands of episodes of deviatoric stress. Here we use quartz deformation experiments and piezoelectric modelling to investigate whether piezoelectric discharge from quartz can explain the ubiquitous gold–quartz association and the formation of gold nuggets. We find that stress on quartz crystals can generate enough voltage to electrochemically deposit aqueous gold from solution as well as accumulate gold nanoparticles. Nucleation of gold via piezo-driven reactions is rate-limiting because quartz is an insulator; however, since gold is a conductor, our results show that existing gold grains are the focus of ongoing growth. We suggest this mechanism can help explain the creation of large nuggets and the commonly observed highly interconnected gold networks within quartz vein fractures. Quartz emits a piezoelectric charge during deformation that may promote the formation of gold nuggets within veins in orogenic settings that experience earthquakes, according to a study using quartz deformation experiments and piezoelectric modelling.","PeriodicalId":19053,"journal":{"name":"Nature Geoscience","volume":"17 9","pages":"920-925"},"PeriodicalIF":15.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142118182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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