Abstract
The accumulation of oxygen is one of the most important characteristics that distinguish Earth from other planets in the solar system, which is also considered to be the key factor influencing the birth and evolution of complex life forms. The oxygenation process of the Earth surface has long been viewed to be episodic with two critical intervals occurring in the early Paleoproterozoic (2.45–2.10 Ga) and the late Neoproterozoic (0.80–0.54 Ga), with a 1.3-billion-year-long low oxygen period in between. Recently, increasing independent works carried out by different scientific teams in the Yanliao Basin, North China are demonstrating that the atmospheric oxygen concentrations had reached >4% PAL (present atmospheric levels) at least during 1.59–1.56, 1.44–1.43, and 1.40–1.36 Ga. These estimated values are higher than the previously recommended values of <0.1–1% PAL. Such a scenario discovered in the Yanliao Basin is consistent with the synchronously deposited strata in Australia and Siberia, pointing to a Mesoproterozoic oxygenation event (1.59–1.36 Ga) between the two major oxygenation intervals during the Proterozoic. This Mesoproterozoic oxygenation event is coupled with the break-up of the Columbia (Nuna) supercontinent, the formation of organic-rich shales and Fe-Mn deposits, and the early innovation of eukaryotic algae, indicating that the geological and biological co-evolutionary processes control the Earth surface system.
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Acknowledgements
We appreciate Professor Donald E Canfield at the University of Southern Denmark for his great help in research and paper writing, and Dr. Yan Deng, Yuke Liu, and Yitong Lyu at the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development for their help in the graphing and text revision. Thanks also go to Genming Luo, Wei Wei, and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable suggestions on the revision. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Science and Technology Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Class A) (Grant No. XDA14010101), the National Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2017YFC0603101), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41872125, 41530317).
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Zhang, S., Wang, H., Wang, X. et al. The Mesoproterozoic Oxygenation Event. Sci. China Earth Sci. 64, 2043–2068 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9825-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9825-x