Biological activity and the Earth's surface evolution: Insights from carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and iron stable isotopes in the rock record

Thomazo, Christophe; Pinti, Daniele L.; Busigny, Vincent; Ader, Magali; Hashizume, K.; Philippot, Pascal

doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2009.02.003

Cited by 99 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 116 publications

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“…The oldest occurrence of extensive shallow-water carbonate is 2.78 Ga at Steep Rock, Ontario (Stone, 2010). The ratio 13 C/ 12 C has not changed much over geological time, indicating that carbon partitions between carbonate and organic carbon reservoirs, as it does today (Thomazo et al, 2009). Carbonates within the oceanic crust are another reservoir that leads to return of carbon to the mantle.…”

Section: Origin Of Life Within Marine Serpentinitementioning

confidence: 99%

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Geological and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin and Evolution of Life

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2018

Astrobiology

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The traditional tree of life from molecular biology with last universal common ancestor (LUCA) branching into bacteria and archaea (though fuzzy) is likely formally valid enough to be a basis for discussion of geological processes on the early Earth. Biologists infer likely properties of nodal organisms within the tree and, hence, the environment they inhabited. Geologists both vet tenuous trees and putative origin of life scenarios for geological and ecological reasonability and conversely infer geological information from trees. The latter approach is valuable as geologists have only weakly constrained the time when the Earth became habitable and the later time when life actually existed to the long interval between ∼4.5 and ∼3.85 Ga where no intact surface rocks are known. With regard to vetting, origin and early evolution hypotheses from molecular biology have recently centered on serpentinite settings in marine and alternatively land settings that are exposed to ultraviolet sunlight. The existence of these niches on the Hadean Earth is virtually certain. With regard to inferring geological environment from genomics, nodes on the tree of life can arise from true bottlenecks implied by the marine serpentinite origin scenario and by asteroid impact. Innovation of a very useful trait through a threshold allows the successful organism to quickly become very abundant and later root a large clade. The origin of life itself, that is, the initial Darwinian ancestor, the bacterial and archaeal roots as free-living cellular organisms that independently escaped hydrothermal chimneys above marine serpentinite or alternatively from shallow pore-water environments on land, the Selabacteria root with anoxygenic photosynthesis, and the Terrabacteria root colonizing land are attractive examples that predate the geological record. Conversely, geological reasoning presents likely events for appraisal by biologists. Asteroid impacts may have produced bottlenecks by decimating life. Thermophile roots of bacteria and archaea as well as a thermophile LUCA are attractive.

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Section: Origin Of Life Within Marine Serpentinitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chemically, reduced carbon produced by modern photosynthesis is depleted in 13 C. Ancient black shale carbon is similarly depleted. The inference that this observation indicates photosynthesis depends on the observation that more clearly photosynthetic deposits throughout the geological record share this property (Thomazo et al, 2009).…”

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confidence: 99%

Geological and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin and Evolution of Life

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2018

Astrobiology

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“…But this magnitude in isotopic fractionation is diagnostic for autotrophic carbon fixation, and researchers have traced the isotopic composition of the inorganic carbon source and the organic carbon product through time in search for evidence of metabolic pathways of primary productivity (e.g. Hayes et al 1983;Schidlowski et al 1983;Schidlowski 1988;Shields and Veizer 2002;Eigenbrode and Freeman 2006;Thomazo et al 2009). …”

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7.6 Enhanced Accumulation of Organic Matter: The Shunga Event

Strauß

Melezhik

Lepland

et al. 2012

Frontiers in Earth Sciences

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“…Such low contents fall within the low range of Precambrian sedimentary rocks, but are typical, although on the high end, of BIFs (Yamaguchi, 2002). The δ 13 C org values range from −22.4 to −30 , which is typical for organic matter derived from photosynthetic organisms (Thomazo et al, 2009) (Table 1). The sample with a TOC level of 720 ppm presents one of the most negative δ 13 C org value (−29.6 ).…”

Section: Organic Carbon Content and Isotopic Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low temperature magnetic properties of the Late Archean Boolgeeda iron formation (Hamersley Group, Western Australia): environmental implications

et al. 2015

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The origin of the iron oxides in Archean and Paleoproterozoic Banded Iron Formations (BIFs) is still a debated question. We report low and high temperature magnetic properties, susceptibility and saturation magnetization results joined with scanning microscope observations within a 35 m section of the Late Archean Boolgeeda Iron Formation of the Hamersley Group, Western Australia. With the exception of two volcanoclastic intervals characterized by low susceptibility and magnetization, nearly pure magnetite is identified as the main magnetic carrier in all iron-rich layers including hematite-rich jasper beds. Two populations of magnetically distinct magnetites are reported from a 2 m-thick interval within the section. Each population shows a specific Verwey transition temperature: one around 120-124 K and the other in the range of 105-110 K. This temperature difference is interpreted to reflect two distinct stoichiometry and likely two episodes of crystallization. The 120-124K transition is attributed to nearly pure stoichiometric magnetite, SEM and microprobe observations suggest that the lower temperature transition is related to chemically impure silician magnetite. Microbial-induced partial substitution of iron by silicon is suggested here. This is supported by an increase in Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in the same interval.

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Biological activity and the Earth's surface evolution: Insights from carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and iron stable isotopes in the rock record

Cited by 99 publications

References 116 publications

Geological and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin and Evolution of Life

Geological and Geochemical Constraints on the Origin and Evolution of Life

7.6 Enhanced Accumulation of Organic Matter: The Shunga Event

Low temperature magnetic properties of the Late Archean Boolgeeda iron formation (Hamersley Group, Western Australia): environmental implications

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