Widespread iron-rich conditions in the mid-Proterozoic ocean

Noah J. Planavsky, Peter McGoldrick, Clinton T. Scott, Chao Li, Christopher T. Reinhard, Amy E. Kelly, Xuelei Chu, Andrey Bekker, Gordon D. Love and Timothy W. Lyons ()
Additional contact information
Noah J. Planavsky: University of California
Peter McGoldrick: CODES ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits, University of Tasmania
Clinton T. Scott: University of California
Chao Li: University of California
Christopher T. Reinhard: University of California
Amy E. Kelly: University of California
Xuelei Chu: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Andrey Bekker: University of Manitoba
Gordon D. Love: University of California
Timothy W. Lyons: University of California

Nature, 2011, vol. 477, issue 7365, 448-451

Abstract: The search for Proterozoic iron The ancient oceans are thought to have been ferruginous (anoxic, with abundant Fe2+), until much of the ocean's dissolved iron content was dumped to form strata known as banded iron formations (BIFs), about 1.8 billion years ago. The prevailing view has been that increasing levels of hydrogen sulphide titrated this iron out of solution, and that mid-Proterozoic oceans were euxinic (sulphur-rich and anoxic; the atmosphere was weakly oxygenated). Recently, it has been proposed that iron-rich conditions persisted beyond BIF deposition, but the supporting evidence is slight, not least because there is a one-billion-year gap in the geological record. Planavsky et al. fill this gap, examining the iron reactivity of rock samples from this period to determine the gross chemistry of the ocean in which the rocks were formed. They show that mid-Proterozoic oceans were indeed ferruginous, thereby calling into question widespread interpretations of what BIFs tell us about their environment.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature10327

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