Increased subaerial volcanism and the rise of atmospheric oxygen 2.5 billion years ago

Lee R. Kump () and Mark E. Barley
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Lee R. Kump: Pennsylvania State University, 535 Deike Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
Mark E. Barley: School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia

Nature, 2007, vol. 448, issue 7157, 1033-1036

Abstract: Coming up for air The rise of atmospheric oxygen levels so important to life on Earth occurred about 2.5 billion years ago. But evidence for the oxygen-producing cyanobacteria thought to be responsible for this event has been found in rocks 200 million years older. If these bacteria really did provide the oxygen, why the delay? Lee Kump and Mark Barley think that the Earth's tectonic evolution is the key. At first submarine volcanoes may have acted as a sink for oxygen, stopping it from escaping into the atmosphere. The pattern of volcanism then changed after a major tectonic episode of continental stabilization around 2.5 billion years ago, when submarine volcanism was abruptly diminished and less-reducing subaerial volcanoes became more common. So with less oxygen being taken up by submarine volcanoes, the stage was set for the rise of atmospheric oxygen.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06058

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