A Whiff of Oxygen Before the Great Oxidation Event?
University of California, Riverside · University of Alberta · +4 more institutions
Abstract
High-resolution chemostratigraphy reveals an episode of enrichment of the redox-sensitive transition metals molybdenum and rhenium in the late Archean Mount McRae Shale in Western Australia. Correlations with organic carbon indicate that these metals were derived from contemporaneous seawater. Rhenium/osmium geochronology demonstrates that the enrichment is a primary sedimentary feature dating to 2501 +/- 8 million years ago (Ma). Molybdenum and rhenium were probably supplied to Archean oceans by oxidative weathering of crustal sulfide minerals. These findings point to the presence of small amounts of O2 in the environment more than 50 million years before the start of the Great Oxidation Event.
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 70.77
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 28
Authors
11- ADAriel D. AnbarCorresponding
University of California, Riverside, University of Alberta, Arizona State University, University of Maryland, College Park
- YDYun Duan
University of California, Riverside, University of Alberta, Arizona State University, University of Maryland, College Park
- TWTimothy W. Lyons
University of California, Riverside, University of Alberta, Arizona State University, University of Maryland, College Park
- GLGail Lee Arnold
University of California, Riverside, University of Alberta, Arizona State University, University of Maryland, College Park
- BKBrian Kendall
University of California, Riverside, University of Alberta, Arizona State University, University of Maryland, College Park
Topics & keywords
- Rhenium
- Geology
- Geochemistry
- Archean
- Pyrite
- Sedimentary rock
- Sulfide
- Molybdenum
- Life below water