大气圈氧气含量水平上升的时间进程:一个与地球动力学过程紧密相关的地球生物学过程

doi:10.7605/gdlxb.2016.01.001

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Abstract

Earth’s atmosphere is overwhelmingly dominated by two types of gas: N₂ and O₂. The nitrogen(N₂)is primordial,and its presence and abundance are not driven by biological processes. In contrast,the oxygen(O₂)is continuously produced biologically via the oxidation of water driven by energy from the Sun. How did O₂,a gas critical to the evolution of animal life,become the second most abundant gas on Earth?The problem is not as simple as it might first appear. In order to understand this problem,we must know not only how and when O₂ was first generated,but also how it came to persist in high concentrations in the atmosphere. Two facts are known with certainty,that are,Earth’s earliest atmosphere was essentially devoid of oxygen;and today’s 21% of atmosphere is composed of oxygen. It should be emphasized that most geological indicators of ancient atmospheric oxygen levels imply only presence or absence and that most of the events that took place between those following two time points are highly uncertain. A battery of geological indicators suggests the timing of the rise of atmosphere oxygen occurred at following time points:(1)A shift from an anoxic to an oxic atmosphere some time between 2.5 and 2.0 billion years ago,which is known as the Great Oxidation Event(GOE);(2)A second‘Great Oxidation Event’ during the Precambrian-Cambrian transition between about 0.85 and 0.54 billion years ago(GOE-Ⅱ),which is herewith referred to as the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event(NOE). Both the GOE and the NOE lead to a prevailing view of atmospheric oxygen evolution over time that is marked by a three durations for the atmospheric oxygen level. Following important cognitions are gained with the further research. If the overall increase in atmospheric O₂,from negligible in the early Archaean to 21% today,was due to the increasing oxygen production as erosion and sedimentation became increasingly important relative to volcanic activity,so, the series of step increases in O₂, associated with periods of anomalously high sedimentation following supercontinent amalgamation,superimposed on this overall trend, which demonstrates that the rise of atmospheric oxygen is resulted from the sophisticated geobiological process that is closely genetically related to geodynamics. The stepwise rise for the atmospheric oxygen is further grouped into 7 events that can be correlated with the period after the supercontinent amalgamation in the history of the Earth,which provides a more clear view;importantly,enhanced sedimentation during these periods promoted the burial of a high fraction of organic carbon and pyrite,thus preventing their reaction with free oxygen,and leading to sustained increases in atmospheric oxygen. Both novel viewpoints and important cognitions provide many important thinking approaches and researching clues for the further understanding of the geobiological process for the rise of atmospheric oxygen. Therefore,tracing these research advances on the study of rise of atmospheric oxygen is helpful to drive new research that will unveil new truths about the evolutionary history of the atmosphere of our planet.

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	Articles by authors
	Mei Mingxiang
	Meng Qingfen

Key words： timing rise of oxygen content level atmosphere research advance

Received: 25 June 2015 Published: 01 February 2016

ZTFLH:

P534

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Financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.:41472090,40472065,49802012)

About author: About the first author Mei Mingxiang,born in 1965,was graduated from China University of Geosciences(Beijing) in 1993,and obtained Ph.D. degree. Now he is a professor at School of Earth Sciences and Resource,China University of Geosciences(Beijing),and is engaged in sedimentology and stratigraphy. E-mail: meimingxiang@263.net.

Cite this article:

Mei Mingxiang,Meng Qingfen. Timing of the rise of atmospheric oxygen content level:A geobiological process that is closely and genetically related to the geodynamics[J]. JOPC, 2016, 18(1): 1-20.

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http://journal09.magtechjournal.com/gdlxb/EN/10.7605/gdlxb.2016.01.001 OR http://journal09.magtechjournal.com/gdlxb/EN/Y2016/V18/I1/1

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