Posted on 03/28/2018 7:50:47 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Billions of years ago... our planet’s primordial atmosphere was toxic to life as we know it, consisting of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and other gases. However, by the Paleoproterozoic Era (2.5–1.6 billion years ago), a dramatic change occurred where oxygen began to be introduced to the atmosphere – known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE).
[S]cientists were not sure if this event – which was the result of photosynthetic bacteria altering the atmosphere – occurred rapidly or not. ... Based on newly-discovered geological evidence, the team concluded that the introduction of oxygen to our atmosphere was “more like a fire hose” than a trickle.
[P]reserved crystallized salts in Russia that are dated to this period..were extracted from a 1.9 km-deep (1.2 mi) hole in Karelia in northwest Russia...
... Using these samples, Blättler and her team were able to learn things about the composition of the oceans and the atmosphere that existed on Earth around the time of the GOE. For starters, the team determined that they contained a surprisingly large amount of sulfate, which is the result of seawater reacting with oxygen.
...
“This is the strongest ever evidence that the ancient seawater from which those minerals precipitated had high sulfate concentrations reaching at least 30 percent of present-day oceanic sulfate as our estimations indicate. This is much higher than previously thought and will require considerable rethinking of the magnitude of oxygenation of Earth’s 2-billion year old atmosphere-ocean system.”
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Third century mind.
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