CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 530Paleontology and Stratigraphy of FossilsGeology and Paleoclimatology ResearchEarth Systems and Cosmic Evolution

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 80 of the 84 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Theoretical constraints on oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations in the Precambrian atmosphere

Kasting, James F.·1987·Precambrian Research
DOI 10.1016/0301-9268(87)90001-5
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Simple (one-dimensional) climate models suggest that carbon dioxide concentrations during the Archean must have been at least 100-1000 times the present level to keep the Earth's surface temperature above freezing in the face of decreased solar luminosity. Such models provide only lower bounds on CO2, so it is possible that CO2 levels were substantially higher than this and that the Archean climate was much warmer than today. Periods of extensive glaciation during the early and late Proterozoic, on the other hand, indicate that the climate at these times was relatively cool. To be consistent with climate models CO2 partial pressures must have declined from approximately 0.03 to 0.3 bar around 2.5 Ga ago to between 10(-3) and 10(-2) bar at 0.8 Ga ago. This steep decrease in carbon dioxide concentrations may be inconsistent with paleosol data, which implies that pCO2 did not change appreciably during that time. Oxygen was essentially absent from the Earth's atmosphere and oceans prior to the emergence of a photosynthetic source, probably during the late Archean. During the early Proterozoic the atmosphere and surface ocean were apparently oxidizing, while the deep ocean remained reducing. An upper limit of 6 x 10(-3) bar for pO2 at this time can be derived by balancing the burial rate of organic carbon with the rate of oxidation of ferrous iron in the deep ocean. The establishment of oxidizing conditions in the deep ocean, marked by the disappearance of banded iron formations approximately 1.7 Ga ago, permitted atmospheric oxygen to climb to its present level. O2 concentrations may have remained substantially lower than today, however, until well into the Phanerozoic.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/0301-9268(87)90001-5

Cites

80 of 80 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Lambert, 1986, The paleoenvironmental significance of trends in sulfur isotope compositions in the Precambrian: a critical review
  2. Walker, 1975, Evolution of the atmosphere of Venus, J. Atmos. Sci., 32, 1248, 10.1175/1520-0469(1975)032<1248:EOTAOV>2.0.CO;2 · DOI
  3. Windley, 1984, The role of atmospheric evolution in Precambrian metallogenesis, Fortschr. Mineral., 62, 253

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 530

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Kasting, J. F.
Affiliations
Ames Research Center (US)
Corresponding author
Kasting, James F.
ORCID
Kasting, James F.
Venue
Precambrian Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1987-01
Volume
34
Issue
3-4
Pages
205-229
ISSN
0301-9268 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/0301-9268(87)90001-5
OpenAlex
W2063974395
Cited by
530
References
84
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 18
FWCI
4.48
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Precambrian Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution
Keywords
Precambrian atmosphere, atmospheric oxygen, partial pressure of CO2, paleosols, organic carbon burial, ferrous iron oxidation, banded iron formations
MeSH terms
Animals, Atmosphere, Carbon Dioxide, Models, Theoretical, Oxygen, Paleontology, Photochemistry, Temperature, Ultraviolet Rays, Water, Greenhouse Effect, Earth, Planet, Evolution, Planetary

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review