The Archaean-Proterozoic Transition: Constraining the Emergence of the Aerobic Earth System
Lead Research Organisation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre
Department Name: SUERC
Abstract
One aspect that makes Earth unique as a planet is the presence of an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Geological data reveal that this has been the case for more than two billion years. However, deeper in time, during Earth's earliest developmental phases, evidence exists that the atmosphere was much different than that of today's, stable free oxygen was essentially absent and carbon dioxide and methane were dominant components. In effect, Earth would have had an atmosphere more similar to the compositions of those of Venus and Mars. The widely held view is that the evolution of bacterial organisms capable of oxygenic photosynthesis saved Earth from sharing the fate of her sister planets. As intellectually elegant as that view seemingly is, geological evidence has been accumulating over the past two decades that indicates it is oversimplified and likely wrong. The critical juncture in time to examine is known as the Archean-Proterozoic transition, some 2.5 to 2.0 billion years ago. It is from rocks belonging to this period in Earth history that the first geological evidence exists for significant levels of free oxygen. However, fossilised organic molecules attributable to ancient oxygenic photosynthesisers are found in rocks hundreds of millions of years older. Thus, it was not biology alone that changed the oxidation state of Earth, but rather some combination of factors influencing not only the rate of oxygen production but also the rate of oxygen consumption. Consequently, the 'how' and the 'when' of the singlemost, evolutionarily profound aspect of Earth, other than the presence of life itself, the rise of atmospheric oxygen, are not known. A unique opportunity has now presented itself to us. The first phase of a once-in-a-career research project was completed late in the summer of 2007 - a total of 3.6 km of pristine drill cores was recovered from one of the finest archives of Archean-Palaeoproterozoic rocks on Earth, those in the Russian portion of the Fennoscandian Shield. This project, known as FAR-DEEP (Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project), represents an international collaborative effort to find answers to these deep scientific questions and was awarded $1.5M from the International Continental Drilling Program and associated funding partners, the national funding institutions of Germany, Norway, the USA and NASA. The cores are now housed at the Norwegian Geological Survey and the second phase of research is about to begin, the characterization, analyses and interpretation of the cores. We have a combined suite of expertise to contribute fundamental knowledge that lies at the heart of the scientific goal of FAR-DEEP; that goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding and self-consistent model explaining how free oxygen became abundant on Earth and thereby laid the foundations for the emergence of the modern aerobic Earth System. We will utilise two of the UK's top analytical facilities, the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre and the NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratory, to obtain high-resolution geochemical data and high-precision geochronology that will be linked into a thoroughly documented and constrained geological framework (integrated core and outcrop datasets). The success of the research outlined in this proposal and the data obtained will underpin all subsequent analyses and inferences of the FAR-DEEP project and thereby assure that its goal is realised.
Publications
Salminen P
(2014)
Travertine precipitation in the Paleoproterozoic Kuetsjärvi Sedimentary Formation, Pechenga Greenstone Belt, NE Fennoscandian Shield
in Precambrian Research
Reuschel M
(2012)
Isotopic evidence for a sizeable seawater sulfate reservoir at 2.1Ga
in Precambrian Research
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 1: The Palaeoproterozoic of Fennoscandia as Context for the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Global Events and the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project: Volume 3
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Global Events and the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project: Volume 3
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Global Events and the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project: Volume 3
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Global Events and the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project: Volume 3
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Global Events and the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project: Volume 3
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Global Events and the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project: Volume 3
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Global Events and the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project: Volume 3
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Global Events and the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project: Volume 3
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 1: The Palaeoproterozoic of Fennoscandia as Context for the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Global Events and the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project: Volume 3
Melezhik, Victor A.; Prave, Anthony R.; Fallick, Anthony E.; Kump, Lee R.; Strauss, Harald; Lepland, Aivo; Hanski, Eero J.
(2012)
Reading the Archive of Earth's Oxygenation: Volume 2: The Core Archive of the Fennoscandian Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project
Melezhik V
(2015)
Carbonate deposition in the Palaeoproterozoic Onega basin from Fennoscandia: a spotlight on the transition from the Lomagundi-Jatuli to Shunga events
in Earth-Science Reviews
Martin A
(2013)
A review of temporal constraints for the Palaeoproterozoic large, positive carbonate carbon isotope excursion (the Lomagundi-Jatuli Event)
in Earth-Science Reviews
Martin A
(2017)
Multiple Palaeoproterozoic carbon burial episodes and excursions
Martin A
(2013)
Dating the termination of the Palaeoproterozoic Lomagundi-Jatuli carbon isotopic event in the North Transfennoscandian Greenstone Belt
in Precambrian Research
Martin A
(2015)
Multiple Palaeoproterozoic carbon burial episodes and excursions
in Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Lepland A
(2013)
Potential influence of sulphur bacteria on Palaeoproterozoic phosphogenesis
in Nature Geoscience
Kump LR
(2011)
Isotopic evidence for massive oxidation of organic matter following the great oxidation event.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Kerr G
(2015)
The Palaeoproterozoic global carbon cycle: insights from the Loch Maree Group, NW Scotland
in Journal of the Geological Society
Crne A
(2014)
Petrography and geochemistry of carbonate rocks of the Paleoproterozoic Zaonega Formation, Russia: Documentation of 13C-depleted non-primary calcite
in Precambrian Research
Brasier A
(2011)
Searching for travertines, calcretes and speleothems in deep time: Processes, appearances, predictions and the impact of plants
in Earth-Science Reviews
Brasier A
(2013)
Earth's earliest global glaciation? Carbonate geochemistry and geochronology of the Polisarka Sedimentary Formation, Kola Peninsula, Russia
in Precambrian Research
Brasier A
(2011)
Coastal sabkha dolomites and calcitised sulphates preserving the Lomagundi-Jatuli carbon isotope signal
in Precambrian Research