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O 2 build-up in the Earth's atmosphere. Red and green lines represent the range of the estimates while time is measured in billions of years ago . Stage 1 (3.85–2.45 Ga): Practically no O 2 in the atmosphere. Stage 2 (2.45–1.85 Ga): O 2 produced, but absorbed in oceans and seabed rock.
The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) or Great Oxygenation Event, also called the Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Revolution, Oxygen Crisis or Oxygen Holocaust, [2] was a time interval during the Earth's Paleoproterozoic era when the Earth's atmosphere and shallow seas first experienced a rise in the concentration of free oxygen. [3]
While there are many abiotic sources and sinks for O 2, the presence of the profuse concentration of free oxygen in modern Earth's atmosphere and ocean is attributed to O 2 production from the biological process of oxygenic photosynthesis in conjunction with a biological sink known as the biological pump and a geologic process of carbon burial involving plate tectonics.
Banded iron formation from the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. A typical banded iron formation consists of repeated, thin layers (a few millimeters to a few centimeters in thickness) of silver to black iron oxides, either magnetite (Fe 3 O 4) or hematite (Fe 2 O 3), alternating with bands of iron-poor chert, often red in color, of similar thickness.
Anoxic events with euxinic (anoxic, sulfidic) conditions have been linked to extreme episodes of volcanic outgassing. Volcanism contributed to the buildup of CO 2 in the atmosphere and increased global temperatures, causing an accelerated hydrological cycle that introduced nutrients into the oceans (stimulating planktonic productivity).
2 build-up in Earth's atmosphere: 1) no O 2 produced; 2) O 2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O 2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4–5) O 2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates
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Oxygen (chemical symbol O) has three naturally occurring isotopes: 16 O, 17 O, and 18 O, where the 16, 17 and 18 refer to the atomic mass.The most abundant is 16 O, with a small percentage of 18 O and an even smaller percentage of 17 O. Oxygen isotope analysis considers only the ratio of 18 O to 16 O present in a sample.