Oxygen levels in the prebiological atmosphere
Abstract
A photochemical model of the early terrestrial atmosphere is used to find oxygen profiles as a function of the hydrogen and carbon monoxide outgassing rates from volcanoes and the rate of oxidation of the earth's crust. Steady state solutions for the amount of O 2 in the atmosphere are possible only when the combined loss rate from all three processes can balance the production of oxygen from photodissociation of H 2 O, followed by escape of hydrogen to space. If limiting flux controls the escape rate, then the production rate of oxygen atoms depends linearly upon the water vapor mixing ratio at the tropopause. Evidence is presented which indicates that the hydrogen outgassing alone was sufficient to overwhelm the production of oxygen, leading to ground level O 2 mixing ratios of the order of 10−12 times the present atmospheric level (PAL) or below. The O 2 mixing ratio increases rapidly with altitude up to a peak of 10−5 PAL at 60 km owing to the presence of CO 2. Present‐day concentrations of N 2, CO 2, and H 2 O are assumed in the calculation. The effect of possible temperature variations upon the H 2 O content is discussed.
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Prior to the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, the abundance of O2 near Earth's surface would have been extremely low.
“Prior to the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, the abundance of O 2 near Earth's surface would have been extremely low (Kasting et al. 1979).”
From The History of Ocean Oxygenation (2022) · cites this paper as Kasting et al. 1979
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“D photochemical code developed originally by Kasting et al. (1979), but the version we use here was significantly modernized and updated by Zahnle et al. (2006) and uses the haze formation scheme described by Pavlov et al. (2001b).”
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Self-citationVolcanic emissions and the early Earth atmosphere
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- Authors
- Kasting, J. F., Liu, S. C., & Donahue, T. M.
- ORCID
- Kasting, J. F.
- Venue
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 1979-06-20
- Volume
- 84
- Issue
- C6
- Pages
- 3097-3107
- ISSN
- 0148-0227 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2009808953
- Cited by
- 153
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 11.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Keywords
- prebiotic atmosphere, atmospheric oxygen, early Earth atmosphere, photochemical modeling, hydrogen outgassing, water photodissociation, hydrogen escape, volcanic outgassing
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