Cited by 118Paleontology and Stratigraphy of FossilsGeochemistry and Elemental AnalysisGeological and Geochemical Analysis

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A persistently low level of atmospheric oxygen in Earth’s middle age

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Liu, Xiao-Ming, Kah, Linda C., Knoll, Andrew H., Cui, Huan, Wang, Chao, Bekker, Andrey, Hazen, Robert M.·2021·Nature Communications

DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-20484-7PMC PMC7806885

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Abstract

Resolving how Earth surface redox conditions evolved through the Proterozoic Eon is fundamental to understanding how biogeochemical cycles have changed through time. The redox sensitivity of cerium relative to other rare earth elements and its uptake in carbonate minerals make the Ce anomaly (Ce/Ce*) a particularly useful proxy for capturing redox conditions in the local marine environment. Here, we report Ce/Ce* data in marine carbonate rocks through 3.5 billion years of Earth’s history, focusing in particular on the mid-Proterozoic Eon (i.e., 1.8 – 0.8 Ga). To better understand the role of atmospheric oxygenation, we use Ce/Ce* data to estimate the partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen (pO 2 ) through this time. Our thermodynamics-based modeling supports a major rise in atmospheric oxygen level in the aftermath of the Great Oxidation Event (~ 2.4 Ga), followed by invariant pO 2 of about 1% of present atmospheric level through most of the Proterozoic Eon (2.4 to 0.65 Ga).

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Fig. 1 Secular trend of Ce anomaly (Ce/Ce*) in marine carbonates. The figure contains >1300 data points for Ce anomaly, including literature data (blue diamonds) and our 305 new analyses (orange circles).CC BY · PubMed Central

Fig. 2 Estimated partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen and Ce anomaly through Earth’s history. Lower part: Secular trend of Ce anomaly (Ce/Ce*) for all complied carbonate data with fitting to lowest 10% of the data shown in pink circles. The pink line indicates the best fit for 100 Ma intervals using the Local Polynomial Regression (LOESS) curve fitting method and the gray field indicates the upper and lower bounds based on 95% confidence level. Upper part: Estimated partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen, pO2 (% PAL), through Earth’s history. The blue line shows our best estimate, and the gray field indicates the upper and lower bounds based on 95% confidence level using the LOESS curve fitting method. The pO2 was calculated using the lowest 10% of all carbonate Ce/Ce* data for 100 Ma intervals.CC BY · PubMed Central

Fig. 3 The estimated partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen level pO2 (% PAL) during the Phanerozoic Eon compared to the results of other studies12,33. The blue line shows our best estimate, and the gray field indicates the upper and lower bounds based on 95% confidence level using the LOESS curve fitting method. The pO2 was calculated using the lowest 10% of all carbonate Ce/Ce* data for 100 Ma intervals during the Phanerozoic Eon.CC BY · PubMed Central

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Authors: Liu, X.-M., Kah, L. C., Knoll, A. H., Cui, H., Wang, C., Bekker, A., & Hazen, R. M.
Affiliations: University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US)
Harvard University (US)
Institut de physique du globe de Paris (FR)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
University of California, Riverside (US)
Carnegie Institution for Science (US)
ORCID: Kah, Linda C.
Knoll, Andrew H.
Cui, Huan
Wang, Chao
Bekker, Andrey
Hazen, Robert M.
Venue: Nature Communications
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published: 2021-01-13
Volume: 12
Issue: 1
Pages: 351-351
ISSN: 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20484-7
PMC: PMC7806885
OpenAlex: W3120679837
Cited by: 116
References: 47
Citations by year: 2026: 11 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 12
FWCI: 15.96
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: gold
doi.org
Licence: cc-by
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (tdm)
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (vor)
Locations: Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders: National Science Foundation (EAR-1848153)
United States Department of Defense | United States Army | U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command | Army Research Office (W911NF-17-2-0028)
Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
W. M. Keck Foundation
John Templeton Foundation
Topics: Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis
Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geological and Geochemical Analysis
Keywords: atmospheric oxygen, cerium anomaly, rare earth elements, Great Oxidation Event, oxygen partial pressure, paleo-oxygenation, biogeochemical cycles, thermodynamic modeling

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A persistently low level of atmospheric oxygen in Earth’s middle age

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