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EARLY EARTH

Methane multiplication

Nature Geoscience volume 11, pages 6–7 (2018)Cite this article

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A combination of two anoxygenic pathways of photosynthesis could have helped to warm early Earth, according to geochemical models. These metabolisms, and attendant biogeochemical feedbacks, could have worked to counter the faint young Sun.

Carbon dioxide usually tops the list of greenhouse gases that could have countered the faint young Sun. This is because its concentration is believed to adjust in response to changing climatic conditions — a sort of automated thermostat3 that could have kept the Earth warm in those dim days. However, controversial evidence4 from ancient soils suggests that CO2 levels were lower than expected during the Archaean. This has led to debates over the importance of other gases, particularly methane, in warming the planet. Photochemical models have shown that methane would have had a long lifetime in the oxygen-poor atmospheres of the Archaean5, but debate has continued over the rate at which methane would have been produced in the first place.

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Fig. 1: Evidence of water.

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  1. Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Thomas A. Laakso

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  1. Thomas A. Laakso
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Correspondence to Thomas A. Laakso.

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Laakso, T.A. Methane multiplication. Nature Geosci 11, 6–7 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-017-0043-y

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