Atmospheric oxygenation caused by a change in volcanic degassing pressure

Fabrice Gaillard (), Bruno Scaillet and Nicholas T. Arndt
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Fabrice Gaillard: Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans, CNRS-INSU/Université d’Orléans/Université de Tours, 1a rue de la Férollerie 45071, Orléans cedex 2, France
Bruno Scaillet: Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans, CNRS-INSU/Université d’Orléans/Université de Tours, 1a rue de la Férollerie 45071, Orléans cedex 2, France
Nicholas T. Arndt: ISTerre, Université Joseph Fourier de Grenoble, CNRS, 1381 rue de la Piscine, 38400 Saint Martin d’Hères, France

Nature, 2011, vol. 478, issue 7368, 229-232

Abstract: Sulphur dioxide and atmospheric oxygenation Around two and a half billion years ago (following the end of the Archaean eon), the atmosphere turned from anoxic to weakly oxic in what is known as the Great Oxidation Event. Using a model of volcanic degassing, Gaillard et al. demonstrate that a preceding period of continental crust formation may have been the trigger. They propose that as continents emerged and volcanoes became increasingly subaerial rather than submarine, magmatic volatiles were degassed at lower pressures, leading to a progressive oxidation of the gases released. This shift to a release of sulphur as sulphur dioxide rather than as hydrogen sulphide could then have fed marine sulphate reduction and the eventual oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature10460

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