Nature Geoscience, Published online: 16 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02123-w

Forecasts of future Arctic Ocean sea ice loss can be substantially improved using Holocene proxy records by applying a model weighting approach.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 14 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02119-6

Progressive oxidative weathering in the Archaean may have raised the proportion of oxidized sulfur recycled during subduction, suggesting a feedback between the surface and increasingly oxidized arc magmatism, according to sulfur in apatite inclusions.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02138-3

Much of the water on Earth could have been produced from dry silicate pebbles falling through the hot, hydrogen-rich primordial atmosphere as the planet formed. High-temperature experiments in streams of pure hydrogen demonstrate that the reduction of iron oxide in the silicates can produce water vapour in minutes or hours, and suggest that water production on Earth-sized exoplanets should be widespread.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 12 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02125-8

The Western Eurasian Steppe has undergone an abrupt and persistent transition to a hotter and drier summer climate that exceeds the range of natural variability, driven by external climate forcing and amplified by internal variability and land–atmosphere feedbacks, according to observations and Earth system model simulations.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 07 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02097-9

Whitlockite can trace ancient impacts in space, human activity at archaeological sites, and may even be a tool for detecting early-stage breast cancer, as Alix Ehlers and Elizabeth Thompson explain.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 07 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02109-8

Water-ice clouds are common across the Solar System, but their formation typically requires pre-existing dust particles to coax water vapour into ice. Atmospheric simulations now suggest that gravity waves over a Martian volcano can bypass the need for dust, generating ice clouds through spontaneous nucleation of water vapour.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 07 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02128-5

Despite its thin, carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere, Mars is proving a valuable laboratory for understanding atmospheric transport, cloud formation, and climate processes on Earth and beyond.

Nature Geoscience, Published online: 07 October 2026; doi:10.1038/s41561-026-02111-0

The Agulhas Leakage is a set of currents that carry salty water from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean around the southern tip of Africa. It helps drive modern Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, but evidence suggests this link wasn’t present in the Pliocene.