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Nature 447, E1 (3 May 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature05830; Received 10 November 2006; Accepted 26 April 2007; Published online 2 May 2007

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Palaeoclimatology: Evidence for hot early oceans?

Graham A. Shields1 & James F. Kasting2

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Arising from: F. Robert & M. Chaussidon Nature 443, 969–972 (2006); Robert & Chaussidon reply

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The oxygen isotopes in sedimentary cherts (siliceous sediments) have been used to argue that the Precambrian oceans were hot — with temperatures of up to 70 °C at 3.3 Gyr before present1. Robert and Chaussidon2 measure silicon isotopes in cherts and arrive at a similar conclusion. We suggest here that both isotope trends may be caused by variations in seawater isotope composition, rather than in ocean temperatures. If so, then the climate of the early Earth may have been temperate, as it is today, and therefore more consistent with evidence for Precambrian glaciations and with constraints inferred from biological evolution.

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