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Geochemistry

Oxygenation by a changing crust

Nature Geoscience volume 10, pages 713–714 (2017)Cite this article

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Serpentine minerals in Earth's early upper continental crust suppressed atmospheric oxygen levels until the upper crust became granitic.

Atmospheric oxygen is vital for the development and habitability of complex life. Earth's atmosphere lacked oxygen for nearly half of the planet's history. Oxygen levels then rapidly increased about 2.3 to 2.4 billion years ago, during the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE)1,2,3, which initiated a stepwise rise in atmospheric oxygen concentrations1. The reason for this increase during the GOE is unclear. Writing in Nature Geoscience Smit and Mezger4 propose that a change in the bulk composition of the upper continental crust about one billion years before the GOE would have caused a decrease in oxygen-consuming reactions at Earth's surface, allowing oxygen to build up in the atmosphere.

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Figure 1: Serpentinites from the Isua Greenstone Belt of southern West Greenland, which is more than 3.7 billion years old.

ELIS HOFFMANN

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  1. Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften, AB Geochemie, Freie Universität Berlin, Malteserstraße 74-100, Berlin, 12249, Germany

    J. Elis Hoffmann

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  1. J. Elis Hoffmann
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Correspondence to J. Elis Hoffmann.

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Hoffmann, J. Oxygenation by a changing crust. Nature Geosci 10, 713–714 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo3038

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