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Rise of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen controlled by efficient subduction of organic carbon

Nature Geoscience volume 10, pages 387–392 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The net flux of carbon between the Earth’s interior and exterior, which is critical for redox evolution and planetary habitability, relies heavily on the extent of carbon subduction. While the fate of carbonates during subduction has been studied, little is known about how organic carbon is transferred from the Earth’s surface to the interior, although organic carbon sequestration is related to sources of oxygen in the surface environment. Here we use high pressure–temperature experiments to determine the capacity of rhyolitic melts to carry carbon under graphite-saturated conditions in a subducting slab, and thus to constrain the subduction efficiency of organic carbon, the remnants of life, through time. We use our experimental data and a thermodynamic model of CO2 dissolution in slab melts to quantify organic carbon mobility as a function of slab parameters. We show that the subduction of graphitized organic carbon, and the graphite and diamond formed by reduction of carbonates with depth, remained efficient even in ancient, hotter subduction zones where oxidized carbon subduction probably remained limited. We suggest that immobilization of organic carbon in subduction zones and deep sequestration in the mantle facilitated the rise (∼103–5 fold) and maintenance of atmospheric oxygen since the Palaeoproterozoic and is causally linked to the Great Oxidation Event. Our modelling shows that episodic recycling of organic carbon before the Great Oxidation Event may also explain occasional whiffs of atmospheric oxygen observed in the Archaean.

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Figure 1: CO2 contents and C–O–H volatile speciation in graphite-saturated rhyolitic glasses.
Figure 2: Slab top P–T paths, solidi and decarbonation boundaries of crustal lithologies, and CO2 contents in slab-derived melts at graphite saturation.
Figure 3: Slab melt C content and graphitic carbon subduction efficiency.
Figure 4: Deep time subduction zone carbon cycle and its impact on O2 in the Earth’s atmosphere through time.

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Acknowledgements

R.D. acknowledges funding from NSF grant OCE-1338842 and support from the Deep Carbon Observatory. The authors thank M. B. Weller and C.-T. Lee for comments and discussions. A formal review by T. Lyons is gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Megan S. Duncan

    Present address: Present address: Carnegie Institution of Washington, Geophysical Laboratory, 5251 Broad Branch Rd. NW, Washington DC 20015, USA.,

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  1. Department of Earth Science, Rice University MS 126, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA

    Megan S. Duncan & Rajdeep Dasgupta

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M.S.D. conducted and analysed the experiments, calibrated the thermodynamic model and performed the model calculations as part of her PhD dissertation. R.D. guided M.S.D. as her thesis adviser. Both authors developed the idea presented in the paper, discussed the data and the models, and co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Megan S. Duncan or Rajdeep Dasgupta.

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Duncan, M., Dasgupta, R. Rise of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen controlled by efficient subduction of organic carbon. Nature Geosci 10, 387–392 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2939

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