NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  1. Content with the tag: “great oxidation event

  2. Evidence for the Great Oxidation Event Challenged


    The timing of the rise of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere is a key question in astrobiology. It is coupled not only to the question of when organisms capable of oxygenic photosynthesis first evolved on Earth, but also what signs of life might be found on young Earth-like planets around other stars.

    Members of NAI’s Penn State and Carnegie Institution of Washington Teams report in the current issue of Science that certain sulfur isotopes found in many sedimentary rocks older than 2.4 billion years may not be the result of photochemical reactions in an oxygen-free atmosphere as previously thought....

    Read More

    Tags , , ,
    Comments No comments yet, you could be the first.
  3. Great Oxidation Event Got Earlier Start


    NAI’s Archean Biosphere Drilling Project supported the drilling of several pristine cores from ancient rocks in Western Australia, with the goal of furthering our understanding of the atmosphere, oceans, climate, and biosphere of early Earth. A new paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters from NAI’s Penn State Team outlines results from the analyses of these cores. Their studies evidence oxygenated surface environments, at least localized and/or short-lived, emerging more than 300 million years before the widely accepted Great Oxidation Event during 2.45 and 2.32 billion years ago. This implies that the...

    Read More

    Tags ,
    Comments No comments yet, you could be the first.
  4. Oxygen in Earth's Atmosphere Before Great Oxidation Event


    NAI’s Astrobiology Drilling Program supported researchers in 2004 to obtain subsurface core samples from the Hamersley Basin in Western Australia. Those samples, representing the time just before the Great Oxidation Event, have been analyzed, and two research papers detailing the results (Anbar, et al. and Kaufman, et al.) appear in September 28, 2007 issue of Science. Both groups found unexpected, correlated changes that reveal the presence of small but significant amounts of O2 in the environment 2.5 billion years ago, ~50-100 milion years before the Great Oxidation Event, and a shift from lower O2 abundance prior to that time.

    Source: [Link]

    Tags , , , ,
    Comments Commenting has been closed.
  5. Biogeochemistry and Oxygenic Photosynthesis


    Researchers from NAI’s University of Colorado, Boulder Team recently reported in Earth and Planetary Science Letters their new biogeochemical model relating to the Great Oxidation Event. With ion microprobe data for individual sulfides from water-lain sedimentary units in the 2.45–2.22 Ga Huronian Supergroup, the team proposes a new model where enhanced weathering rates during interglacial thawing stimulated blooms of oxygenic photosynthesis, the demise of methane, and ultimately the irreversible rise in atmospheric oxygen between the first and second Huronian glaciations. The paper’s lead author was also the recipient of an NAI Research Scholarship in 2004.

    Source: [Link]

    Tags , , , ,
    Comments Commenting has been closed.
  6. Earlier Evolution of Oxygenic Photosynthesis - Surviving Snowball Earth


    Roger Buick from NAI’s University of Washington Team and his colleagues report in the current issue of Geology their analysis of oil-bearing fluid inclusions in 2.45 billion year old rocks from Canada. They assert that the oil is derived from an overlying formation, becoming trapped in the host rock before 2.2 billion years ago – prior to the Great Oxidation Event. Abundant biomarkers for cyanobacteria and eukaryotes were identified in the study, suggesting that aqueous environments at the time had become sufficiently oxygenated for sterol biosynthesis to occur, and implying that organisms had the ability to survive “snowball Earth”...

    Read More

    Source: [Link]

    Tags , , , , , , ,
    Comments Commenting has been closed.
  1. Tell us what you think!


    It's your Astrobiology Program: please help us out by sending comments on what's here, and ideas for new features.

Page Feedback

Email (optional)
Comment
Tags