Nature Communications (Jun 2020)

Mantle data imply a decline of oxidizable volcanic gases could have triggered the Great Oxidation

  • Shintaro Kadoya,
  • David C. Catling,
  • Robert W. Nicklas,
  • Igor S. Puchtel,
  • Ariel D. Anbar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16493-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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The early Earth’s atmosphere had very low oxygen levels for hundreds of millions of years, until the 2.4 Ga Great Oxidation Event, which remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that reducing Archean volcanic gases could have prevented atmospheric O2 from accumulating, and therefore mantle oxidation was likely very important in setting the evolution of O2 and aerobic life.