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Tectonic processes can lead to the formation of semi-enclosed seas and the deposition of extensive salt deposits. This Review explores the drivers and impacts of the Mediterranean Messinian salinity crisis, including previously underconsidered impacts on the global carbon cycle.
The Isua Supercrustal Belt in Greenland hosts sedimentary rocks that were deposited 3.7 billion years ago in the forearc environment of an active convergent plate boundary, suggesting subduction-related plate tectonics in the Eoarchean, as indicated by geochemical data and tectonostratigraphic analyses of an 80-m drill core.
Deposition of 1.2-billion-year-old Indian limestone in shallow seas near the poles imply balmy conditions of more than 15 °C and significantly higher atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, which expands the spectrum of Earth’s climatic extremes.
An article in Geology shows how enhanced oxidative weathering could have stimulated the evolution of complex life in the Ediacaran, by increasing nutrient availability and ocean–atmosphere oxygen levels.
An article in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology describes how high-productivity intervals during Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 were related to the influence of freshwater runoff.
An article in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta reports a Nd-isotope record of terrestrial dust from northern Tibetan Plateau sediments since 52 Ma, revealing insight into regional uplift and climate changes from inland Asia.
Confidence that banded iron formations record oxic conditions during deposition is established, as a model demonstrates that they are formed of primary iron oxides rather than secondarily altered silicate minerals.
