Great Oxidation Event - Knowledge (XXG)

686:. The iron in banded iron formations is partially oxidized, with roughly equal amounts of ferrous and ferric iron. Deposition of a banded iron formation requires both an anoxic deep ocean capable of transporting iron in soluble ferrous form, and an oxidized shallow ocean where the ferrous iron is oxidized to insoluble ferric iron and precipitates onto the ocean floor. The deposition of banded iron formations before 1.8 Ga suggests the ocean was in a persistent ferruginous state, but deposition was episodic and there may have been significant intervals of 2243: 8144: 2162: 40: 8556: 48: 2153:

action of ultraviolet light in the upper atmosphere and releases its hydrogen. The escape of hydrogen from the Earth into space must have oxidized the Earth because the process of hydrogen loss is chemical oxidation. This process of hydrogen escape required the generation of methane by methanogens, so that methanogens actually helped create the conditions necessary for the oxidation of the atmosphere.

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oxygenated the ocean and ended banded iron formation deposition. However, improved dating of Precambrian strata showed that the late Archean peak of deposition was spread out over tens of millions of years, rather than taking place in a very short interval of time following the evolution of oxygen-coping mechanisms. This made Cloud's hypothesis untenable.

723:, which is considered a modern model for ancient anoxic ocean basins, indicate that high DOP, a high ratio of reactive iron to total iron, and a high ratio of total iron to aluminum are all indicators of transport of iron into a euxinic environment. Ferruginous anoxic conditions can be distinguished from euxenic conditions by a DOP less than about 0.7. 2000:) that is insoluble in water, and sank to the bottom of the shallow seas to create banded iron formations. It took 50 million years or longer to deplete the oxygen sinks. The rate of photosynthesis and associated rate of organic burial also affect the rate of oxygen accumulation. When land plants spread over the continents in the 2046:

photosynthesisers over the course of the GOE. More recently, families of bacteria have been discovered that closely resemble cyanobacteria but show no indication of ever having possessed photosynthetic capability. These may be descended from the earliest ancestors of cyanobacteria, which only later acquired photosynthetic ability by

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formation continued to be deposited until around 1.85 Ga. Given the rapid multiplication rate of cyanobacteria under ideal conditions, an explanation is needed for the delay of at least 400 million years between the evolution of oxygen-producing photosynthesis and the appearance of significant oxygen in the atmosphere.

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organic carbon and does not accumulate. The burial of organic carbon, sulfide, and minerals containing ferrous iron (Fe) is a primary factor in oxygen accumulation. When organic carbon is buried without being oxidized, the oxygen is left in the atmosphere. In total, the burial of organic carbon and pyrite today creates

690:. The transition from deposition of banded iron formations to manganese oxides in some strata has been considered a key tipping point in the timing of the GOE because it is believed to indicate the escape of significant molecular oxygen into the atmosphere in the absence of ferrous iron as a reducing agent. 2598:, even under thick ice. By inference, these organisms could have adapted to oxygen even before oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere. The evolution of such oxygen-dependent organisms eventually established an equilibrium in the availability of oxygen, which became a major constituent of the atmosphere. 2178:

lies in these deposits. It was assumed oxygen released from cyanobacteria resulted in the chemical reactions that created rust, but it appears the iron formations were caused by anoxygenic phototrophic iron-oxidizing bacteria, which does not require oxygen. Evidence suggests oxygen levels spiked each

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MIF provides clues to the Great Oxygenation Event. For example, oxidation of manganese in surface rocks by atmospheric oxygen leads to further reactions that oxidize chromium. The heavier Cr is oxidized preferentially over the lighter Cr, and the soluble oxidized chromium carried into the ocean shows

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The currently available evidence suggests that the deep ocean remained anoxic and ferruginous as late as 580 Ma, well after the Great Oxygenation Event, remaining just short of euxenic during much of this interval of time. Deposition of banded iron formation ceased when conditions of local euxenia on

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Examples of such indicators of anoxic conditions include the degree of pyritization (DOP), which is the ratio of iron present as pyrite to the total reactive iron. Reactive iron, in turn, is defined as iron found in oxides and oxyhydroxides, carbonates, and reduced sulfur minerals such as pyrites, in

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Cyanobacteria tend to consume nearly as much oxygen at night as they produce during the day. However, experiments demonstrate that cyanobacterial mats produce a greater excess of oxygen with longer photoperiods. The rotational period of the Earth was only about six hours shortly after its formation

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is the main key of GOE. Hydrogen and methane released from metamorphic processes are also lost from Earth's atmosphere over time and leave the crust oxidized. Scientists realized that hydrogen would escape into space through a process called methane photolysis, in which methane decomposes under the

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In contrast to the increasing flux hypothesis, there are several hypotheses that attempt to use decrease of sinks to explain the GOE. One theory suggests increasing lacustrine organic carbon burial as a cause; with more reduced carbon being buried, there was less of it for free oxygen to react with

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cooled and the supply of volcanic nickel dwindled, oxygen-producing algae began to outperform methane producers, and the oxygen percentage of the atmosphere steadily increased. From 2.7 to 2.4 Ga the rate of deposition of nickel declined steadily from a level 400 times that of today. This

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Another possibility is that early cyanobacteria were starved for vital nutrients, and this checked their growth. However, a lack of the scarcest nutrients, iron, nitrogen, and phosphorus, could have slowed but not prevented a cyanobacteria population explosion and rapid oxygenation. The explanation

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One hypothesis suggests that the oxygen increase had to await tectonically driven changes in the Earth, including the appearance of shelf seas, where reduced organic carbon could reach the sediments and be buried. The burial of reduced carbon as graphite or diamond around subduction zones released

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The increased oxygen concentrations provided a new opportunity for biological diversification, as well as tremendous changes in the nature of chemical interactions between rocks, sand, clay, and other geological substrates and the Earth's air, oceans, and other surface waters. Despite the natural

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but increased to 21 hours by 2.4 Ga in the Paleoproterozoic. The rotational period increased again, starting 700 million years ago, to its present value of 24 hours. The total amount of oxygen produced by the cyanobacteria remained the same with longer days, but the longer the

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after the GOE. However, the chromium data may conflict with the sulfur isotope data, which calls the reliability of the chromium data into question. It is also possible that oxygen was present earlier only in localized "oxygen oases". Since chromium is not easily dissolved, its release from rocks

422:, meanwhile, was present in the atmosphere at just 0.001% of its present atmospheric level. The Sun shone at about 70% of its current brightness 4 billion years ago, but there is strong evidence that liquid water existed on Earth at the time. A warm Earth, in spite of a faint Sun, is known as the 818:

in Western Australia, are associated with cyanobacteria, and thus fossil stromatolites had long been interpreted as the evidence for cyanobacteria. However, it has increasingly been inferred that at least some of these Archaean fossils were generated abiotically or produced by non-cyanobacterial

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Hypotheses to explain this gap must take into consideration the balance between oxygen sources and oxygen sinks. Oxygenic photosynthesis produces organic carbon that must be segregated from oxygen to allow oxygen accumulation in the surface environment, otherwise the oxygen back-reacts with the

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One hypothesis argues that the GOE was the immediate result of photosynthesis, although the majority of scientists suggest that a long-term increase of oxygen is more likely. Several model results show possibilities of long-term increase of carbon burial, but the conclusions are indeterminate.

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to form banded iron formation. He interpreted the great peak in deposition of banded iron formation at the end of the Archean as the signature for the evolution of mechanisms for living with oxygen. This ended self-poisoning and produced a population explosion in the cyanobacteria that rapidly

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that would have shielded the lower atmosphere from UV radiation. The disappearance of the MIF signature for sulfur indicates the formation of such an ozone shield as oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere. MIF of sulphur also indicates the presence of oxygen in that oxygen is required to

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The ability to generate oxygen via photosynthesis likely first appeared in the ancestors of cyanobacteria. These organisms evolved at least 2.45–2.32 Ga and probably as early as 2.7 Ga or earlier. However, oxygen remained scarce in the atmosphere until around 2.0 Ga, and banded iron

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had not yet evolved during the time frame of the Great Oxygenation Event. Thus laminated black shale by itself is a poor indicator of oxygen levels. Scientists must look instead for geochemical evidence of anoxic conditions. These include ferruginous anoxia, in which dissolved ferrous iron is

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are diagenetic products of sterols, which are biosynthesized using molecular oxygen. Thus, steranes can additionally serve as an indicator of oxygen in the atmosphere. However, these biomarker samples have since been shown to have been contaminated, and so the results are no longer accepted.

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Most modern interpretations describe the GOE as a long, protracted process that took place over hundreds of millions of years rather than a single abrupt event, with the quantity of atmospheric oxygen fluctuating in relation to the capacity of oxygen sinks and the productivity of oxygenic

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Different isotopes of a chemical element have slightly different atomic masses. Most of the differences in geochemistry between isotopes of the same element scale with this mass difference. These include small differences in molecular velocities and diffusion rates, which are described as

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However, other authors express scepticism that the GOE resulted in widespread eukaryotic diversification due to the lack of robust evidence, concluding that the oxygenation of the oceans and atmosphere does not necessarily lead to increases in ecological and physiological diversity.

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nickel famine was somewhat buffered by an uptick in sulfide weathering at the start of the GOE that brought some nickel to the oceans, without which methanogenic organisms would have declined in abundance more precipitously, plunging Earth into even more severe and long-lasting

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Kreitsmann, T.; Lepland, A.; Bau, M.; Prave, A.; Paiste, K.; Mänd, K.; et al. (September 2020). "Oxygenated conditions in the aftermath of the Lomagundi-Jatuli event: The carbon isotope and rare earth element signatures of the Paleoproterozoic Zaonega formation, Russia".

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that are coated with hematite. The occurrence of red beds indicates that there was sufficient oxygen to oxidize iron to its ferric state, and these represent a marked contrast to sandstones deposited under anoxic conditions which are often beige, white, grey, or green.

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The newly produced oxygen was first consumed in various chemical reactions in the oceans, primarily with iron. Evidence is found in older rocks that contain massive banded iron formations apparently laid down as this iron and oxygen first combined; most present-day

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contrast with iron tightly bound in silicate minerals. A DOP near zero indicates oxidizing conditions, while a DOP near 1 indicates euxinic conditions. Values of 0.3 to 0.5 are transitional, suggesting anoxic bottom mud under an oxygenated ocean. Studies of the

2656:. Thus the evolution of eukaryotic sex and eukaryogenesis were likely inseparable processes that evolved in large part to facilitate DNA repair. The evolution of mitochondria, which are well suited for oxygenated environments, may have occurred during the GOE. 646:. Detrital grains composed of pyrite, siderite, and uraninite (redox-sensitive detrital minerals) are found in sediments older than ca. 2.4 Ga. These minerals are only stable under low oxygen conditions, and so their occurrence as detrital minerals in 2651:

from these humble beginnings. Selective pressure for efficient DNA repair of oxidative DNA damage may have driven the evolution of eukaryotic sex involving such features as cell-cell fusions, cytoskeleton-mediated chromosome movements and emergence of the

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data, the evolution of oxygen-producing photosynthesis may have occurred much later than previously thought, at around 2.5 Ga. This reduces the gap between the evolution of oxygen photosynthesis and the appearance of significant atmospheric oxygen.

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this enhancement of the heavier isotope. The chromium isotope ratio in banded iron formation suggests small but significant quantities of oxygen in the atmosphere before the Great Oxidation Event, and a brief return to low oxygen abundance 500

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Constraining the onset of atmospheric oxygenation has proven particularly challenging for geologists and geochemists. While there is a widespread consensus that initial oxygenation of the atmosphere happened sometime during the first half of the

571:, and an oxygenated ocean blocks such transport by oxidizing the iron to form insoluble ferric iron compounds. The end of the deposition of banded iron formation at 1.85 Ga is therefore interpreted as marking the oxygenation of the deep ocean. 2606:

It has been proposed that a local rise in oxygen levels due to cyanobacterial photosynthesis in ancient microenvironments was highly toxic to the surrounding biota, and that this selective pressure drove the evolutionary transformation of an

583:, there is disagreement on the exact timing of this event. Scientific publications between 2016–2022 have differed in the inferred timing of the onset of atmospheric oxygenation by approximately 500 million years; estimates of 2.7 4843:

Konhauser, Kurt O.; Lalonde, Stefan V.; Planavsky, Noah J.; Pecoits, Ernesto; Lyons, Timothy W.; Mojzsis, Stephen J.; et al. (October 2011). "Aerobic bacterial pyrite oxidation and acid rock drainage during the Great Oxidation Event".

5135: 3832: 3406: 3191: 3122: 2234:(a strong greenhouse gas) to carbon dioxide (a weaker one) and water. This weakened the greenhouse effect of the Earth's atmosphere, causing planetary cooling, which has been proposed to have triggered a series of ice ages known as the 252:, due in part to the great difficulty in surveying microscopic organisms' abundances, and in part to the extreme age of fossil remains from that time, the Great Oxidation Event is typically not counted among conventional lists of " 2036:

through its rapid removal via the high levels of reduced ferrous iron, Fe(II), in the early ocean. He suggested that the oxygen released by photosynthesis oxidized the Fe(II) to ferric iron, Fe(III), which precipitated out of the

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Hofmann, Axel; Bekker, Andrey; Rouxel, Olivier; Rumble, Doug; Master, Sharad (September 2009). "Multiple sulphur and iron isotope composition of detrital pyrite in Archaean sedimentary rocks: A new tool for provenance analysis".

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of oxygen concentration. The state of stable low oxygen concentration (0.02%) experiences a high rate of methane oxidation. If some event raises oxygen levels beyond a moderate threshold, the formation of an ozone layer shields

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molecular oxygen into the atmosphere. The appearance of oxidised magmas enriched in sulphur formed around subduction zones confirms changes in tectonic regime played an important role in the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere.

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mass-dependent fractionation processes. By contrast, MIF describes processes that are not proportional to the difference in mass between isotopes. The only such process likely to be significant in the geochemistry of sulfur is

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Scholz, Florian; Severmann, Silke; McManus, James; Noffke, Anna; Lomnitz, Ulrike; Hensen, Christian (December 2014). "On the isotope composition of reactive iron in marine sediments: Redox shuttle versus early diagenesis".

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Konhauser, Kurt O.; Pecoits, Ernesto; Lalonde, Stefan V.; Papineau, Dominic; Nisbet, Euan G.; Barley, Mark E.; et al. (April 2009). "Oceanic nickel depletion and a methanogen famine before the Great Oxidation Event".

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Peng, Peng; Liu, Xu; Feng, Lianjun; Zhou, Xiqiang; Kuang, Hongwei; Liu, Yongqing; Kang, Jianli; Wang, Xinping; Wang, Chong; Dai, Ke; Wang, Huichu; Li, Jianrong; Miao, Peisen; Guo, Jinghui; Zhai, Mingguo (March 2023).

739:(MIF) of sulfur. The chemical signature of the MIF of sulfur is found prior to 2.4–2.3 Ga but disappears thereafter. The presence of this signature all but eliminates the possibility of an oxygenated atmosphere. 2789: 2688:

period. During the Lomagundi-Jatuli event, oxygen amounts in the atmosphere reached similar heights to modern levels, before returning to low levels during the following stage, which caused the deposition of

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Another hypothesis posits that a number of large igneous provinces (LIPs) were emplaced during the GOE and fertilised the oceans with limiting nutrients, facilitating and sustaining cyanobacterial blooms.

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Mänd, Kaarel; Lalonde, Stefan V.; Robbins, Leslie J.; Thoby, Marie; Paiste, Kärt; Kreitsmann, Timmu; et al. (April 2020). "Palaeoproterozoic oxygenated oceans following the Lomagundi–Jatuli Event".

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evolved after the GOE, giving organisms the energy to exploit new, more complex morphologies interacting in increasingly complex ecosystems, although these did not appear until the late Proterozoic and

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Eriksson, Patrick G.; Cheney, Eric S. (January 1992). "Evidence for the transition to an oxygen-rich atmosphere during the evolution of red beds in the lower proterozoic sequences of southern Africa".

2724:– Earth history between 1.8~0.8 billion years ago, characterized by tectonic stability, climatic stasis, and a slow biological evolution with very low oxygen levels and no evidence of glaciation 7688:

Van Kranendonk, Martin J. (2012). "16: A chronostratigraphic division of the Precambrian: Possibilities and challenges". In Gradstein, Felix M.; Ogg, James G.; Schmitz, Mark D.; Ogg, abi M. (eds.).

547:, all minerals containing reduced forms of iron or uranium that are not found in younger sediments because they are rapidly oxidized in an oxidizing atmosphere. He further observed that continental 527:

The current scientific understanding of when and how the Earth's atmosphere changed from a weakly reducing to a strongly oxidizing atmosphere largely began with the work of the American geologist

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Dutkiewicz, A.; Volk, H.; George, S.C.; Ridley, J.; Buick, R. (2006). "Biomarkers from Huronian oil-bearing fluid inclusions: An uncontaminated record of life before the Great Oxidation Event".

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time smaller land masses collided to form a super-continent. Tectonic pressure thrust up mountain chains, which eroded releasing nutrients into the ocean that fed photosynthetic cyanobacteria.

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Lyons, Timothy W.; Anbar, Ariel D.; Severmann, Silke; Scott, Clint; Gill, Benjamin C. (May 2009). "Tracking Euxinia in the Ancient Ocean: A Multiproxy Perspective and Proterozoic Case Study".

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Krissansen-Totton, J.; Buick, R.; Catling, D.C. (1 April 2015). "A statistical analysis of the carbon isotope record from the Archean to Phanerozoic and implications for the rise of oxygen".

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per year today oxidizes reduced gases in the atmosphere through photochemical reaction. On the early Earth, there was visibly very little oxidative weathering of continents (e.g., a lack of

814:, which are interpreted as colonies of microbes, including cyanobacteria, with characteristic layered structures. Modern stromatolites, which can only be seen in harsh environments such as 682:

and hematite). Extensive deposits of this rock type are found around the world, almost all of which are more than 1.85 billion years old and most of which were deposited around 2.5

516:. Such an atmosphere contains practically no oxygen. The modern atmosphere contains abundant oxygen (nearly 21%), making it an oxidizing atmosphere. The rise in oxygen is attributed to 5558: 2064:

for the delay in the oxygenation of the atmosphere following the evolution of oxygen-producing photosynthesis likely lies in the presence of various oxygen sinks on the young Earth.

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The rise in oxygen content was not linear: instead, there was a rise in oxygen content around 2.3 Ga, followed by a drop around 2.1 Ga. This rise in oxygen is called the

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shows that UV radiation was penetrating deep into the Earth's atmosphere. This in turn rules out an atmosphere containing more than traces of oxygen, which would have produced an

642:, detrital grains, and red beds are evidence of low oxygen levels. Paleosols (fossil soils) older than 2.4 billion years old have low iron concentrations that suggest anoxic 747:. This is the process in which a molecule containing sulfur is broken up by solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The presence of a clear MIF signature for sulfur prior to 2.4 1961:

per year today goes to the sinks composed of reduced minerals and gases from volcanoes, metamorphism, percolating seawater and heat vents from the seafloor. On the other hand,

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Preston Cloud originally proposed that the first cyanobacteria had evolved the capacity to carry out oxygen-producing photosynthesis but had not yet evolved enzymes (such as

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Utsunomiya, Satoshi; Murakami, Takashi; Nakada, Masami; Kasama, Takeshi (January 2003). "Iron oxidation state of a 2.45 Byr-old paleosol developed on mafic volcanics".

587:, 2.501–2.434 Ga 2.501–2.225 Ga, 2.460–2.426 Ga, 2.430 Ga, 2.33 Ga, and 2.3 Ga have been given. Factors limiting calculations include an incomplete 8605: 6182:

des Marais, David J.; Strauss, Harald; Summons, Roger E.; Hayes, J.M. (October 1992). "Carbon isotope evidence for the stepwise oxidation of the Proterozoic environment".

2594:, Antarctica, scientists found that mats of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria produced a thin layer, one to two millimeters thick, of oxygenated water in an otherwise 619:), this is rarely quantified when considering geochemical records and may therefore lead to uncertainties for scientists studying the timing of atmospheric oxygenation. 2012:

molecule spends in the air before it is consumed by geological sinks is about 2 million years. That residence time is relatively short in geologic time; so in the

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Cox, Grant M.; Halverson, Galen P.; Minarik, William G.; Le Heron, Daniel P.; Macdonald, Francis A.; Bellefroid, Eric J.; Strauss, Justin V. (December 2013).

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Sosa Torres, Martha E.; Saucedo-Vázquez, Juan P.; Kroneck, Peter M.H. (2015). "The Magic of Dioxygen". In Kroneck, Peter M.H.; Sosa Torres, Martha E. (eds.).

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The rate of change of oxygen can be calculated from the difference between global sources and sinks. The oxygen sinks include reduced gases and minerals from

7928: 887: 777:) which may have formed through bacterial oxidation of pyrite. This could provide some of the earliest evidence of oxygen-breathing life on land surfaces. 4365:

Trendall, A.F.; Blockley, J.G. (2004). "Precambrian iron-formation". In Eriksson, P.G.; Altermann, W.; Nelson, D.R.; Mueller, W.U.; Catuneanu, O. (eds.).

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Baumgartner, Raphael J.; Van Kranendonk, Martin J.; Wacey, David; Fiorentini, Marco L.; Saunders, Martin; Caruso, Stefano; et al. (1 November 2019).

8540: 834:. For example, traces of 2α-methylhopanes and steranes that are thought to be derived from cyanobacteria and eukaryotes, respectively, were found in the 8317: 7881: 2929:

Gumsley, Ashley P.; Chamberlain, Kevin R.; Bleeker, Wouter; Söderlund, Ulf; De Kock, Michiel O.; Larsson, Emilie R.; Bekker, Andrey (6 February 2017).

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rays and decreases methane oxidation, raising oxygen further to a stable state of 21% or more. The Great Oxygenation Event can then be understood as a

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largely disappears from the geological record at 1.85 Ga, after peaking at about 2.5 Ga. Banded iron formation can form only when abundant dissolved

2693:(rocks that contain large amounts of organic matter that would otherwise have been burned away by oxygen). This drop in oxygen levels is called the 8327: 4689:

Frei, R.; Gaucher, C.; Poulton, S.W.; Canfield, D.E. (2009). "Fluctuations in Precambrian atmospheric oxygenation recorded by chromium isotopes".

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Bekker, Andrey (2014). "Huronian glaciation". In Amils, Ricardo; Gargaud, Muriel; Cernicharo Quintanilla, José; Cleaves, Henderson James (eds.).

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Anbar, A.; Duan, Y.; Lyons, T.; Arnold, G.; Kendall, B.; Creaser, R.; et al. (2007). "A whiff of oxygen before the great oxidation event?".

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sediments are widely interpreted as evidence of an anoxic atmosphere. In contrast to redox-sensitive detrital minerals are red beds, red-colored

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French, Katherine L.; Hallmann, Christian; Hope, Janet M.; Schoon, Petra L.; Zumberge, J. Alex; Hoshino, Yosuke; et al. (27 April 2015).

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While the GOE is generally thought to be a result of oxygenic photosynthesis by ancestral cyanobacteria, the presence of cyanobacteria in the

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Zhang, Shuichang; Wang, Xiaomei; Wang, Huajian; Bjerrum, Christian J.; Hammarlund, Emma U.; Costa, M. Mafalda; et al. (4 January 2016).

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Lyons, Timothy W.; Reinhard, Christopher T.; Planavsky, Noah J. (February 2014). "The rise of oxygen in Earth's early ocean and atmosphere".

7723:"A review of temporal constraints for the Palaeoproterozoic large, positive carbonate carbon isotope excursion (the Lomagundi–Jatuli Event)" 4089:

Ostrander, Chadlin M.; Heard, Andy W.; Shu, Yunchao; Bekker, Andrey; Poulton, Simon W.; Olesen, Kasper P.; Nielsen, Sune G. (11 July 2024).

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Ossa Ossa, Frantz; Spangenberg, Jorge E.; Bekker, Andrey; König, Stephan; Stüeken, Eva E.; Hofmann, Axel; et al. (15 September 2022).

7771:"C–O isotope geochemistry of the Dashiqiao magnesite belt, North China Craton: Implications for the Great Oxidation Event and ore genesis" 7377:

Mänd, Kaarel; Planavsky, Noah J.; Porter, Susannah M.; Robbins, Leslie J.; Wang, Changle; Kreitsmann, Timmu; et al. (15 April 2022).

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Canfield, Donald E.; Poulton, Simon W. (1 April 2011). "Ferruginous Conditions: A Dominant Feature of the Ocean through Earth's History".

7437:"Earth's surface oxygenation and the rise of eukaryotic life: Relationships to the Lomagundi positive carbon isotope excursion revisited" 6592:

Meng, Xuyang; Simon, Adam C.; Kleinsasser, Jackie M.; Mole, David R.; Kontak, Daniel J.; Jugo, Peter J.; et al. (28 November 2022).

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before the GOE is a highly controversial topic. Structures that are claimed to be fossils of cyanobacteria exist in rock formed 3.5

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Warke, Matthew R.; Di Rocco, Tommaso; Zerkle, Aubrey L.; Lepland, Aivo; Prave, Anthony R.; Martin, Adam P.; et al. (16 June 2020).

3043: 2256:, life had remained energetically limited until the widespread availability of oxygen. The availability of oxygen greatly increased the 706:

conditions. However, the deposition of abundant organic matter is not a sure indication of anoxia, and burrowing organisms that destroy

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Carbonaceous microfossils from the Turee Creek Group of Western Australia, which date back to ~2.45–2.21 Ga, have been interpreted as

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Crockford, Peter W.; Kunzmann, Marcus; Bekker, Andrey; Hayles, Justin; Bao, Huiming; Halverson, Galen P.; et al. (20 May 2019).

1977:), and so the weathering sink on oxygen would have been negligible compared to that from reduced gases and dissolved iron in oceans. 8385: 3583: 2854: 5954: 8519: 8488: 7921: 7435:

Fakhraee, Mojtaba; Tarhan, Lidya G.; Reinhard, Christopher T.; Crowe, Sean A.; Lyons, Timothy W.; Planavsky, Noah J. (May 2023).

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Poulton, Simon W.; Bekker, Andrey; Cumming, Vivien M.; Zerkle, Aubrey L.; Canfield, Donald E.; Johnston, David T. (April 2021).

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sinks. Free oxygen produced during this time was chemically captured by dissolved iron, converting iron Fe and Fe to magnetite (

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one containing abundant free oxygen, with oxygen levels being as high as 10% of modern atmospheric level by the end of the GOE.

8297: 8194: 7480:"Precambrian sedimentary carbonates: carbon and oxygen isotope geochemistry and implications for the terrestrial oxygen budget" 6135:"Palaeoproterozoic ice houses and the evolution of oxygen-mediating enzymes: the case for a late origin of photosystem II" 5294: 4191: 3650: 3785:

Large, Ross R.; Hazen, Robert M.; Morrison, Shaunna M.; Gregory, Dan D.; Steadman, Jeffrey A.; Mukherjee, Indrani (May 2022).

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in the atmosphere and oceans, enabling its buildup. A different theory suggests that the composition of the volatiles from

8524: 5586: 3356:"Mass-Independent Fractionation of Sulfur Isotopes in Archean Sediments: Strong Evidence for an Anoxic Archean Atmosphere" 2110: 6795:

Claire, M.W.; Catling, D.C.; Zahnle, K.J. (December 2006). "Biogeochemical modelling of the rise in atmospheric oxygen".

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Evidence for the Great Oxidation Event is provided by a variety of petrological and geochemical markers that define this

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further elaborated these ideas through the 1980s, placing the main time interval of oxygenation between 2.2 and 1.9 Ga.

7166: 3187:"Evolution of multicellularity coincided with increased diversification of cyanobacteria and the Great Oxidation Event" 8440: 7914: 5770:

Catling, David C.; Claire, Mark W. (August 2005). "How Earth's atmosphere evolved to an oxic state: A status report".

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Bernstein, Harris; Bernstein, Carol (2017). "Sexual communication in Archaea, the precursor to eukaryotic meiosis".

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Dahl, T.W.; Hammarlund, E.U.; Anbar, A.D.; Bond, D.P.G.; Gill, B.C.; Gordon, G.W.; et al. (30 September 2010).

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Hodgskiss, Malcolm S. W.; Crockford, Peter W.; Peng, Yongbo; Wing, Boswell A.; Horner, Tristan J. (27 August 2019).

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and weathering. The GOE started after these oxygen-sink fluxes and reduced-gas fluxes were exceeded by the flux of O

850:. Their presence suggests a minimum threshold of seawater oxygen content had been reached by this interval of time. 8615: 8088: 6375:

Catling, D.C. (3 August 2001). "Biogenic Methane, Hydrogen Escape, and the Irreversible Oxidation of Early Earth".

4157: 647: 2627:) to drive selection in an early archaeal lineage towards eukaryosis. This archaeal ancestor may already have had 2032:) for living in an oxygenated environment. These cyanobacteria would have been protected from their own poisonous 59:. Red and green lines represent the range of the estimates while time is measured in billions of years ago (Ga). 8590: 8430: 6087:"Rhyacian intermittent large igneous provinces sustained Great Oxidation Event: Evidence from North China craton" 5713:"Devonian rise in atmospheric oxygen correlated to the radiations of terrestrial plants and large predatory fish" 2257: 1785: 1502: 241: 7109:

Sverjensky, Dimitri A.; Lee, Namhey (1 February 2010). "The Great Oxidation Event and Mineral Diversification".

8462: 8454: 8350: 8302: 8058: 6974:"The Paleoproterozoic snowball Earth: A climate disaster triggered by the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis" 6744:

Goldblatt, C.; Lenton, T.M.; Watson, A.J. (2006). "Bistability of atmospheric oxygen and the Great Oxidation".

4633:

Fakhraee, Mojtaba; Hancisse, Olivier; Canfield, Donald Eugene; Crowe, Sean A.; Katsev, Sergei (22 April 2019).

4440:

Lantink, Margriet L.; Oonk, Paul B. H.; Floor, Geerke H.; Tsikos, Harilaos; Mason, Paul R. D. (February 2018).

2632: 1462: 1126: 568: 7572:"A molecular timescale for eukaryote evolution with implications for the origin of red algal-derived plastids" 4022:

Luo, Genming; Ono, Shuhei; Beukes, Nicolas J.; Wang, David T.; Xie, Shucheng; Summons, Roger E. (6 May 2016).

3185:

Schirrmeister, Bettina E.; de Vos, Jurriaan M.; Antonelli, Alexandre; Bagheri, Homayoun C. (29 January 2013).

616: 2730:– A second major increase in Earth's oxygen levels that occurred between around 850 and 540 million years ago 858:

Some elements in marine sediments are sensitive to different levels of oxygen in the environment such as the

8595: 8400: 7050:

Sperling, Erik; Frieder, Christina; Raman, Akkur; Girguis, Peter; Levin, Lisa; Knoll, Andrew (August 2013).

6332:

Spinks, Samuel C.; Parnell, John; Bowden, Stephen A.; Taylor, Ross A.D.; Maclean, Màiri E. (December 2014).

6028:

Wang, Shui-Jiong; Rudnick, Roberta L.; Gaschnig, Richard M.; Wang, Hao; Wasylenki, Laura E. (4 March 2019).

5382:"The evolutionary diversification of cyanobacteria: Molecular–phylogenetic and paleontological perspectives" 5199:"Iron mineralization and taphonomy of microfossils of the 2.45–2.21 Ga Turee Creek Group, Western Australia" 2751: 2620: 2101: 2033: 847: 780:

Other elements whose MIF may provide clues to the GOE include carbon, nitrogen, transitional metals such as

423: 245: 8267: 8219: 7722: 6921: 4441: 2623:(ROS) might have acted in synergy with other environmental stresses (such as ultraviolet radiation and/or 1896: 1522: 1190: 903: 611:. While the effects of an incomplete geological record have been discussed and quantified in the field of 8569: 7518: 7479: 7144: 3651:"Nano−porous pyrite and organic matter in 3.5 billion-year-old stromatolites record primordial life" 727:

continental platforms and shelves began precipitating iron out of upwelling ferruginous water as pyrite.

8224: 8113: 8103: 7727: 7441: 6693: 6654: 6091: 5900: 5563: 5032: 2757: 2635:, and possibly some kind of cell fusion mechanism. The detrimental effects of internal ROS (produced by 2047: 1871: 797: 667: 560: 8390: 5288:

Stüeken, E.E.; Buick, R.; Bekker, A.; Catling, D.; Foriel, J.; Guy, B.M.; et al. (1 August 2015).

4892: 3740:"Neoproterozoic iron formation: An evaluation of its temporal, environmental and tectonic significance" 143: 56: 6890:(2 August 2021). "'Totally new' idea suggests longer days on early Earth set stage for complex life". 5603:

Holland, Heinrich D. (November 2002). "Volcanic gases, black smokers, and the great oxidation event".

3702:

Trendall, A. F. (2002). "The Significance of Iron-Formation in the Precambrian Stratigraphic Record".

3261: 8493: 8262: 8252: 8209: 7833: 7782: 7736: 7644: 7583: 7530: 7491: 7450: 7392: 7178: 7118: 7063: 6985: 6851: 6804: 6753: 6663: 6607: 6548: 6500: 6441: 6384: 6338: 6334:"Enhanced organic carbon burial in large Proterozoic lakes: Implications for atmospheric oxygenation" 6291: 6242: 6191: 6100: 6043: 5986: 5912: 5874: 5817: 5779: 5724: 5669: 5612: 5511: 5470: 5393: 5303: 5254: 5212: 5203: 5144: 5095: 5046: 4925: 4855: 4700: 4648: 4591: 4554: 4516: 4455: 4446: 4414: 4339: 4330: 4292: 4246: 4200: 4037: 3962: 3841: 3798: 3751: 3665: 3540: 3415: 3320: 3273: 3200: 3131: 3052: 2942: 2884: 2029: 1142: 707: 608: 370: 261: 181: 7165:

Sumner, Dawn Y.; Hawes, Ian; Mackey, Tyler J.; Jungblut, Anne D.; Doran, Peter T. (1 October 2015).

8559: 8322: 8204: 8199: 8189: 8108: 8051: 6648:

Köhler, Inga; Konhauser, Kurt O.; Papineau, Dominic; Bekker, Andrey; Kappler, Andreas (June 2013).

5081: 2235: 2231: 2114: 1644: 1603: 513: 386: 380: 315: 311: 192: 6278:"Mechanisms and climatic-ecological effects of the Great Oxidation Event in the early Proterozoic" 3900:"A prolonged, two-step oxygenation of Earth's early atmosphere: Support from confidence intervals" 7859: 7798: 7769:

Tang, Hao-Shu; Chen, Yan-Jing; Santosh, M.; Zhong, Hong; Wu, Guang; Lai, Yong (28 January 2013).

7670: 7378: 7216: 7204: 6903: 6869: 6820: 6777: 6650:"Biological carbon precursor to diagenetic siderite with spherical structures in iron formations" 6623: 6467: 6408: 6333: 6307: 6258: 6215: 6086: 6059: 6010: 5936: 5833: 5693: 5642: 5580: 5270: 5198: 5197:

Fadel, Alexandre; Lepot, Kevin; Busigny, Vincent; Addad, Ahmed; Troadec, David (September 2017).

4879: 4825: 4775: 4724: 4664: 4615: 4004: 3929: 3767: 3681: 3631: 3504: 3308: 3240: 2908: 1765: 1664: 1562: 615:

for several decades, particularly with respect to the evolution and extinction of organisms (the

600: 532: 4442:"Fe isotopes of a 2.4 Ga hematite-rich IF constrain marine redox conditions around the GOE" 3355: 39: 6277: 3307:

Crockford, Peter W.; bar On, Yinon M.; Ward, Luce M.; Milo, Ron; Halevy, Itay (November 2023).

8529: 8415: 8405: 8158: 8118: 7701: 7611: 7357: 7326: 7274: 7091: 7013: 6952: 6887: 6769: 6681: 6598: 6574: 6539: 6535:"Great Oxidation and Lomagundi events linked by deep cycling and enhanced degassing of carbon" 6491: 6459: 6400: 6207: 6164: 6034: 6002: 5928: 5841: 5752: 5685: 5539: 5421: 5362: 5333:"Origin and Evolution of Water Oxidation before the Last Common Ancestor of the Cyanobacteria" 5172: 5111: 5086: 5062: 5013: 4959: 4941: 4871: 4817: 4767: 4716: 4639: 4607: 4582: 4382: 4262: 4169: 4112: 4071: 4053: 3996: 3988: 3921: 3904: 3877: 3859: 3715: 3623: 3579: 3496: 3443: 3375: 3336: 3289: 3228: 3167: 3149: 3019: 3009: 2978: 2960: 2900: 2850: 2816: 2677: 2275: 744: 434: 4229:

Johnson, Jena E.; Gerpheide, Aya; Lamb, Michael P.; Fischer, Woodward W. (27 February 2014).

298:. The continually produced oxygen eventually depleted all the surface reducing capacity from 8534: 8282: 8257: 8214: 8184: 8133: 8128: 7950: 7849: 7841: 7790: 7744: 7693: 7660: 7652: 7601: 7591: 7538: 7499: 7458: 7408: 7400: 7396: 7349: 7316: 7308: 7264: 7254: 7194: 7186: 7126: 7081: 7071: 7003: 6993: 6944: 6895: 6859: 6812: 6761: 6671: 6615: 6564: 6556: 6508: 6449: 6432: 6392: 6347: 6299: 6276:

Luo, Genming; Zhu, Xiangkun; Wang, Shuijiong; Zhang, Shihong; Jiao, Chaoqun (22 June 2022).

6250: 6199: 6154: 6146: 6108: 6051: 5994: 5920: 5882: 5825: 5787: 5783: 5742: 5732: 5677: 5620: 5529: 5519: 5478: 5411: 5401: 5352: 5344: 5311: 5262: 5220: 5162: 5152: 5103: 5054: 5003: 4995: 4949: 4933: 4863: 4846: 4809: 4757: 4748: 4708: 4691: 4656: 4599: 4562: 4545: 4524: 4471: 4463: 4422: 4374: 4347: 4308: 4300: 4296: 4254: 4208: 4161: 4104: 4095: 4061: 4045: 4028: 3978: 3970: 3953: 3913: 3867: 3849: 3806: 3759: 3707: 3673: 3615: 3571: 3548: 3488: 3433: 3423: 3367: 3328: 3281: 3218: 3208: 3157: 3139: 3070: 3060: 3056: 3001: 2968: 2950: 2892: 2806: 2798: 2739: 2653: 2616: 2289: 2201: 2161: 2105: 859: 712: 628: 604: 580: 572: 376: 307: 253: 229: 207: 203: 136: 7770: 5808:

Cloud, Preston E. (1968). "Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Evolution on the Primitive Earth".

5266: 4528: 8600: 8242: 8179: 7955: 5290:"The evolution of the global selenium cycle: Secular trends in Se isotopes and abundances" 5245:

Anbar, Ariel D.; Rouxel, Olivier (May 2007). "Metal Stable Isotopes in Paleoceanography".

2712:

It has been hypothesized that eukaryotes first evolved during the Lomagundi-Jatuli event.

2293: 2051: 1745: 1246: 675: 588: 494: 366: 265: 249: 6487:"Rise of Earth's atmospheric oxygen controlled by efficient subduction of organic carbon" 2226:

Eventually, oxygen started to accumulate in the atmosphere, with two major consequences.

67:

in the atmosphere. The oceans were also largely anoxic – with the possible exception of O

7837: 7786: 7740: 7648: 7587: 7534: 7495: 7454: 7182: 7122: 7067: 6989: 6855: 6808: 6757: 6667: 6611: 6552: 6504: 6445: 6388: 6295: 6246: 6195: 6104: 6047: 5990: 5916: 5878: 5821: 5728: 5673: 5616: 5515: 5474: 5397: 5307: 5258: 5216: 5148: 5099: 5058: 5050: 4929: 4859: 4704: 4652: 4595: 4580:

Farquhar, J. (4 August 2000). "Atmospheric Influence of Earth's Earliest Sulfur Cycle".

4558: 4520: 4459: 4418: 4343: 4250: 4204: 4041: 3966: 3845: 3802: 3755: 3669: 3544: 3419: 3324: 3277: 3204: 3135: 2998:

Sustaining Life on Planet Earth: Metalloenzymes Mastering Dioxygen and Other Chewy Gases

2946: 2888: 810:. These include microfossils of supposedly cyanobacterial cells and macrofossils called 78:

produced, rising to values of 0.02 and 0.04 atm, but absorbed in oceans and seabed rock.

8395: 8370: 7960: 7697: 7606: 7571: 7519:"Carbon isotope geochemistry of the Precambrian Lomagundi carbonate province, Rhodesia" 7321: 7296: 7269: 7242: 7086: 7051: 7008: 6973: 6569: 6534: 6159: 6134: 5747: 5712: 5534: 5497: 5416: 5381: 5357: 5332: 5167: 5080:

Brocks, Jochen J.; Logan, Graham A.; Buick, Roger; Summons, Roger E. (13 August 1999).

5008: 4981: 4954: 4913: 4635:"Proterozoic seawater sulfate scarcity and the evolution of ocean–atmosphere chemistry" 4066: 4023: 3872: 3827: 3575: 3438: 3223: 3186: 3162: 3117: 3039:"Moderate levels of oxygenation during the late stage of Earth's Great Oxidation Event" 2973: 2930: 2811: 2784: 2721: 2706: 2253: 2081: 2073: 869:. Non-metal elements such as selenium and iodine are also indicators of oxygen levels. 517: 438: 401: 334: 188: 89:

of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces. No significant change in oxygen level.

7721:

Martin, Adam P.; Condon, Daniel J.; Prave, Anthony R.; Lepland, Aivo (December 2013).

5624: 4378: 4212: 3739: 2709:. Oceans seem to have stayed rich in oxygen for some time even after the event ended. 2148:

was more oxidized. Another theory suggests that the decrease of metamorphic gases and

735:

Some of the most persuasive evidence for the Great Oxidation Event is provided by the

607:, and uncertainties related to the interpretation of different geological/geochemical 457:, which is a powerful greenhouse gas and was produced by early forms of life known as 8584: 8272: 8123: 8098: 7886: 7863: 7802: 7674: 7542: 7503: 6907: 6873: 6816: 6627: 6593: 6311: 6063: 6014: 5862: 5439: 5274: 5130: 4883: 4829: 4779: 4668: 4351: 4090: 4008: 3948: 3933: 3685: 3635: 3401: 2834: 2745: 2640: 2595: 2377: 1826: 766: 703: 528: 521: 354: 327: 319: 280: 7845: 7748: 7463: 7436: 7208: 6948: 6824: 6471: 6412: 6351: 6262: 6112: 6029: 5940: 5697: 5224: 4619: 4467: 3771: 3508: 8514: 8093: 6781: 6219: 4728: 3531:

Shaw, George H. (August 2008). "Earth's atmosphere – Hadean to early Proterozoic".

2912: 2838: 2763: 2702: 2636: 2591: 2577: 2261: 2192: 2149: 2145: 1942: 1704: 1442: 878: 827: 811: 612: 596: 342: 338: 299: 237: 151: 139: 6838:

Klatt, J.M.; Chennu, A.; Arbic, B.K.; Biddanda, B.A.; Dick, G.J. (2 August 2021).

5524: 5107: 4813: 4566: 3763: 3285: 2742: – The hypothesis that multicellular life may be self-destructive or suicidal 17: 6972:

Kopp, Robert E.; Kirschvink, Joseph L.; Hilburn, Isaac A.; Nash, Cody Z. (2005).

6030:"Methanogenesis sustained by sulfide weathering during the Great Oxidation Event" 5829: 4603: 3811: 3786: 3552: 2736:– Timeline of the development of free oxygen in the Earth's oceans and atmosphere 8375: 8360: 8143: 7937: 7570:

Strassert, Jürgen F.H.; Irisarri, Iker; Williams, Tom A.; Burki, Fabien (2021).

7353: 5886: 5559:"Photosynthesis originated a billion years earlier than we thought, study shows" 3005: 3000:. Metal Ions in Life Sciences volume 15. Vol. 15. Springer. pp. 1–12. 2690: 2624: 2197: 2188: 2093: 2089: 2013: 1388: 1350: 752: 651: 458: 284: 257: 222: 147: 47: 7596: 7404: 7167:"Antarctic microbial mats: A modern analog for Archean lacustrine oxygen oases" 7056: