The DOI matches its Crossref record; 51 of the 52 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
No climate paradox under the faint early Sun
Abstract
Environmental niches in which life first emerged and later evolved on the Earth have undergone dramatic changes in response to evolving tectonic/geochemical cycles and to biologic interventions, as well as increases in the Sun's luminosity of about 25 to 30 per cent over the Earth's history. It has been inferred that the greenhouse effect of atmospheric CO(2) and/or CH(4) compensated for the lower solar luminosity and dictated an Archaean climate in which liquid water was stable in the hydrosphere. Here we demonstrate, however, that the mineralogy of Archaean sediments, particularly the ubiquitous presence of mixed-valence Fe(II-III) oxides (magnetite) in banded iron formations is inconsistent with such high concentrations of greenhouse gases and the metabolic constraints of extant methanogens. Prompted by this, and the absence of geologic evidence for very high greenhouse-gas concentrations, we hypothesize that a lower albedo on the Earth, owing to considerably less continental area and to the lack of biologically induced cloud condensation nuclei, made an important contribution to moderating surface temperature in the Archaean eon. Our model calculations suggest that the lower albedo of the early Earth provided environmental conditions above the freezing point of water, thus alleviating the need for extreme greenhouse-gas concentrations to satisfy the faint early Sun paradox.
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“Siderite (FeCO3) in Archean IFs has been proposed as a pCO2 proxy if it precipitated in equilibrium with the atmosphere (170, 171).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [170]
In the citing paper
“Some FYS hypotheses invoke clouds: that the Archean Bond albedo was low because of substantially different cloud cover (170, 209) or that abundant high-altitude cirrus clouds warmed early Earth (210).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [170]
In the citing paper
“Our results are inconsistent with such a low pCO 2 since rapid atmospheric escape would be unavoidable in this scenario.”
From The young Sun's XUV-activity as a constraint for lower CO2-limits in the Earth's Archean atmosphere (2021) · cites this paper as Rosing et al. 2010
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Metadata
- Authors
- Rosing, M. T., Bird, D. K., Sleep, N. H., & Bjerrum, C. J.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Rosing, Minik T.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2010-04
- Volume
- 464
- Issue
- 7289
- Pages
- 744-747
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1970418159
- Cited by
- 258
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 37 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 21.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Keywords
- greenhouse effect, atmospheric CO2, methane, banded iron formations, magnetite, methanogenic archaea, cloud condensation nuclei, early Earth atmosphere, early Earth tectonics, early Earth geochemistry
- MeSH terms
- Atmosphere, Carbon Dioxide, Climate, Freezing, Hydrogen, Models, Theoretical, Partial Pressure, Sunlight, Water, Greenhouse Effect, Ecosystem, Earth, Planet, Geologic Sediments, History, Ancient
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