IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v449y2007i7163d10.1038_nature06202.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Isotopic evidence for Mesoarchaean anoxia and changing atmospheric sulphur chemistry

Author

Listed:
  • James Farquhar

    (University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA)

  • Marc Peters

    (Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut und Museum der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstraße 24, 48149 Münster, Germany)

  • David T. Johnston

    (University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA)

  • Harald Strauss

    (Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut und Museum der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstraße 24, 48149 Münster, Germany)

  • Andrew Masterson

    (University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA)

  • Uwe Wiechert

    (Freie Universität Berlin, Malteserstr. 74-100, Haus B, C und N, 12249 Berlin, Germany)

  • Alan J. Kaufman

    (University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA)

Abstract

The observation of non-mass-dependent sulphur isotope ratios in sedimentary rocks more than ∼2.4 billion years old and the disappearance of this signal in younger sediments is taken as evidence for the transition from an anoxic to oxic atmosphere around 2.4 Gyr ago. But now, the preservation of a non mass-dependent signal that differs from that of preceding and following periods in the Archean is demonstrated. The findings support the original idea of an anoxic early atmosphere before 2.4 Gyr ago, and at the same time identifies variability within the isotope record that suggests changes in pre-2.4 Gya atmospheric pathways for non-mass-dependent chemistry and in the ultraviolet transparency of an evolving early atmosphere.

Suggested Citation

  • James Farquhar & Marc Peters & David T. Johnston & Harald Strauss & Andrew Masterson & Uwe Wiechert & Alan J. Kaufman, 2007. "Isotopic evidence for Mesoarchaean anoxia and changing atmospheric sulphur chemistry," Nature, Nature, vol. 449(7163), pages 706-709, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:449:y:2007:i:7163:d:10.1038_nature06202
    DOI: 10.1038/nature06202
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06202
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature06202?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kumar, Satish & Cuntz, Manfred & Musielak, Zdzislaw E., 2015. "Fractal and multifractal analysis of the rise of oxygen in Earth’s early atmosphere," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 296-303.
    2. Mojtaba Fakhraee & Noah Planavsky, 2024. "Insights from a dynamical system approach into the history of atmospheric oxygenation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:449:y:2007:i:7163:d:10.1038_nature06202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.