Ancient micrometeorites suggestive of an oxygen-rich Archaean upper atmosphere

Tomkins, Andrew G.; Bowlt, Lara; Genge, Matthew J.; Wilson, Siobhan A.; Brand, Helen E. A.; Wykes, Jeremy

doi:10.1038/nature17678

Cited by 50 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The question is whether sufficiently large and unaltered fossil I-type spherules can actually be recovered from sediments. The recent find of unaltered 2.7 Ga old I-type cosmic spherules33 is very promising in this respect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…This is predicted from experiments12 and mass balance modeling14. The oxygen and iron isotope composition of unaltered fossil I-type cosmic spherules430313233 will thus provide information on the Δ' 17 O of the ancient atmosphere and past CO 2 levels. The resolution of the calculated Δ' 17 O O2 is∼0.07‰ (single I-type cosmic spherule; see Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reconstruction of variations in atmospheric Δ' 17 O from fossil cosmic spherules430313233 would be a new paleo-CO 2 proxy. The only published Δ' 17 O data on I-type spherules by Clayton et al 4.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tracing the oxygen isotope composition of the upper Earth’s atmosphere using cosmic spherules

Pack¹,

Höweling

Hezel

et al. 2017

Nat Commun

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Molten I-type cosmic spherules formed by heating, oxidation and melting of extraterrestrial Fe,Ni metal alloys. The entire oxygen in these spherules sources from the atmosphere. Therefore, I-type cosmic spherules are suitable tracers for the isotopic composition of the upper atmosphere at altitudes between 80 and 115 km. Here we present data on I-type cosmic spherules collected in Antarctica. Their composition is compared with the composition of tropospheric O2. Our data suggest that the Earth's atmospheric O2 is isotopically homogenous up to the thermosphere. This makes fossil I-type micrometeorites ideal proxies for ancient atmospheric CO2 levels.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tracing the oxygen isotope composition of the upper Earth’s atmosphere using cosmic spherules

Pack¹,

Höweling

Hezel

et al. 2017

Nat Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Yet it seems that the researchers still have chance to find some clues. For example, Tomkins et al (2016) extracted fossil micrometeorites from limestone sedimentary rock that had accumulated slowly 2.7 billion years ago before being preserved in Australia's Pilbara region, and suggested that Archaean upper‐atmosphere oxygen concentrations may have been close to those of the present‐day Earth, though the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) had not started at that time (Lyons et al, 2014). This could give an important constraint to model the Archaean ionosphere with present knowledge.…”

Section: What Is Space Environment Evolution?mentioning

confidence: 99%

A planetary perspective on Earth’s space environment evolution

Wei

Yue

Rong

et al. 2017

Earth and Planetary Physics

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The planet Earth is an integrated system, in which its multi‐spheres are coupled, from the space to the inner core. Whether the space environment in short to long terms has been controlled by the earth's interior process is contentious. In the past several decades, space weather and space climate have been extensively studied based on either observation data measured directly by man‐made instruments or ancient data inferred indirectly from some historical medium of past thousands of years. The acquired knowledge greatly helps us to understand the dynamic processes in the space environment of modern Earth, which has a strong magnetic dipole and an oxygen‐rich atmosphere. However, no data is available for ancient space weather and climate (>5 ka). Here, we propose to take the advantage of “space‐diversity” to build a “generalized planetary space family”, to reconcile the ancient space environment evolution of planet Earth from modern observations of other planets in our solar system. Such a method could also in turn give us a valuable insight into other planets' evolution.

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“…Indeed wüstite is also metastable at <550 °C; however, its decomposition to magnetite and metal alloy is kinetically impeded, as shown by its presence in 2.7 Ga I‐type cosmic spherules (Tomkins et al. ).…”

Section: Textural and Mineralogical Evidence For An Unmelted Originmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comment on “Unmelted cosmic metal particles in the Indian Ocean” by Prasad et al.

Genge

Ginneken

2017

Meteorit & Planetary Scien

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Ancient micrometeorites suggestive of an oxygen-rich Archaean upper atmosphere

Cited by 50 publications

References 27 publications

Tracing the oxygen isotope composition of the upper Earth’s atmosphere using cosmic spherules

Tracing the oxygen isotope composition of the upper Earth’s atmosphere using cosmic spherules

A planetary perspective on Earth’s space environment evolution

Comment on “Unmelted cosmic metal particles in the Indian Ocean” by Prasad et al.

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