The Phanerozoic Eon has witnessed considerable changes in the climate system as well as abundant animals and plant life. Therefore, the evolution of the climate system in this Eon is worthy of extensive research. Only by studying climate changes in the past can we understand the driving mechanisms for climate changes in the future and make reliable climate projections. Apart from observational paleoclimate proxy datasets, climate simulations provide an alternative approach to investigate past climate conditions of the Earth, especially for long time span in the deep past. Here we perform 55 snapshot simulations for the past 540 million years, with a 10-million-year interval, using the Community Earth System Model version 1.2.2 (CESM1.2.2). The climate simulation dataset includes global distributions of monthly surface temperatures and precipitation, with a 1° horizontal resolution of 0.9° × 1.25° in latitude and longitude. This open access climate dataset is useful for multidisciplinary research, such as paleoclimate, geology, geochemistry, and paleontology.

The high‐precision δ60/58Ni values of twenty‐six geological reference materials, including igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, stream sediments, soils and plants are reported. The δ60/58Ni values of all samples were determined by double‐spike MC‐ICP‐MS (Nu Plasma III). Isotope standard solution (NIST SRM 986) and geological reference materials (BHVO‐2, BCR‐2, JP‐1, PCC‐1, etc.) were used to evaluate the measurement bias and intermediate precision over a period of six months. Our results show that the intermediate precision of Ni isotope determination was 0.05‰ (2s, n = 69) for spiked NIST SRM 986 and typically 0.06‰ for actual samples, and the δ60/58Ni NIST SRM 986 values were in excellent agreement with previous studies. Eighteen high‐precision Ni isotope ratios of geological reference materials are first reported here, and their δ60/58Ni values varied from −0.27‰ to 0.52‰, with a mean of 0.13 ± 0.34‰ (2s, n = 18). Additionally, SGR‐1b (0.56 ± 0.04‰, 2s), GSS‐1 (−0.27 ± 0.06‰, 2s), GSS‐7 (−0.11 ± 0.01‰, 2s), GSD‐10 (0.46 ± 0.06‰, 2s) and GSB‐12 (0.52 ± 0.06‰, 2s) could potentially serve as candidate reference materials for Ni isotope fractionation and comparison of Ni isotopic compositions among different laboratories.

Geological evidence indicates that the deglaciation of Marinoan snowball Earth ice age (~635 Myr ago) was associated with intense continental weathering, recovery of primary productivity, transient marine euxinia, and potentially extensive CH4 emission. It is proposed that the deglacial CH4 emissions may have provided positive feedbacks for ice melting and global warming. However, the origin of CH4 remains unclear. Here we report Ni isotopes (δ60Ni) and Yttrium-rare earth element (YREE) compositions of syndepositional pyrites from the upper most Nantuo Formation (equivalent deposits of the Marinoan glaciation), South China. The Nantuo pyrite displays anti-correlations between Ni concentration and δ60Ni, and between Ni concentration and Sm/Yb ratio, suggesting mixing between Ni in seawater and Ni from methanogens. Our study indicates active methanogenesis during the termination of Marinoan snowball Earth. This suggests that methanogenesis was fueled by methyl sulfides produced in sulfidic seawater during the deglacial recovery of marine primary productivity.

The composition of the astrophysical relativistic jets remains uncertain. By kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we show that the baryon component in the jet, or the so-called baryon loading effect (BLE), heavily affects relativistic jets transport dynamics in the interstellar medium. On the one hand, with the BLE, relativistic jets can transport in a much longer distance, because jet electrons draw a significant amount of energy from jet baryons via the Buneman-induced electrostatic waves and the Weibel-mediated collisionless shock; on the other hand, the jet electron phase space distribution may transform from a bottom-wide-single-peak structure to a center-wide-multiple-peak one by increasing the BLE, which largely influences the observed jet morphology. Implications for related astrophysical studies are also discussed.

It is generally believed that the addition of continents cools the climate of an aquaplanet with a similar orbit to Earth; this is because continents have a higher surface albedo than oceans. A similar effect has been shown in climate simulations for exoplanets. Here we demonstrate that the influence of a continent on ocean circulation could have a dominative effect on the climate of a synchronously rotating exoplanet compared with the effect of the surface albedo, especially when the rotation of the exoplanet is relatively slow (e.g., the rotational period is 40 Earth days). The global mean surface temperature could vary by more than 26° C, simply by moving a small continent to a different location. The ocean circulation on a synchronously rotating exoplanet is characterized by a strong westerly jet along the equator and one large gyre in each hemisphere. The surface temperature decreases when the equatorial westerly or the western branch of either of the gyres is blocked by a continent or an island arc chain. However, if the continent blocks the eastern branch of the gyre, the equatorial westerly is strengthened and the climate warms. A large number of potentially habitable exoplanets have been found orbiting around M-dwarfs in a tidally locked manner; our results indicate that their climates, as well as their atmospheric chemistry, may deviate from previous estimates if a small continent, or even an island arc chain, is present.