Publication Date:
2022-05-27
Description:
© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Johnson, A. C., Ostrander, C. M., Romaniello, S. J., Reinhard, C. T., Greaney, A. T., Lyons, T. W., & Anbar, A. D. Reconciling evidence of oxidative weathering and atmospheric anoxia on Archean Earth. Science Advances, 7(40), (2021): eabj0108, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj0108.
Description:
Evidence continues to emerge for the production and low-level accumulation of molecular oxygen (O2) at Earth’s surface before the Great Oxidation Event. Quantifying this early O2 has proven difficult. Here, we use the distribution and isotopic composition of molybdenum in the ancient sedimentary record to quantify Archean Mo cycling, which allows us to calculate lower limits for atmospheric O2 partial pressures (PO2) and O2 production fluxes during the Archean. We consider two end-member scenarios. First, if O2 was evenly distributed throughout the atmosphere, then PO2 〉 10–6.9 present atmospheric level was required for large periods of time during the Archean eon. Alternatively, if O2 accumulation was instead spatially restricted (e.g., occurring only near the sites of O2 production), then O2 production fluxes 〉0.01 Tmol O2/year were required. Archean O2 levels were vanishingly low according to our calculations but substantially above those predicted for an abiotic Earth system.
Description:
We would like to thank our funding sources, including FESD “Dynamics of Earth System Oxygenation” (NSF EAR 1338810 to A.D.A.), NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship awarded to A.C.J. (80NSSC17K0498), NSF EAR PF to A.C.J. (1952809), and WHOI Postdoctoral Fellowship to C.M.O. C.T.R. acknowledges support from the NASA Astrobiology Institute. We also acknowledge support from the Metal Utilization and Selection across Eons (MUSE) Interdisciplinary Consortium for Astrobiology Research, sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Science Mission Directorate (19-ICAR19_2-0007).
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
