Rexamining the "whiff of oxygen" (IMAGE)
Caption
Electron microscopy revealed that the Mount McRae Shale is made of volcanic glass shards (light grey, left), which could be a source of the molybdenum concentrated in the “whiff” interval during later fluid flow events that have previously been taken to indicate early atmospheric oxygen. These events are recorded in the iron-sulfur mineral pyrite within the dark grey shale of the “whiff” interval; here a scanned image (right) shows both early-formed round nodules with diffuse halos and parallel lines of tiny crystals that formed during later fluid flow.
Credit
From Science Advances, Slotznick et al., “Re-examination of 2.5 Ga ‘Whiff’ of Oxygen Interval Points to Anoxic Ocean Before GOE,” January 5, 2022. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
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License
CC BY-NC