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Published on: July 24, 2016
Ferruginous conditions dominated later neoproterozoic deep-water chemistry
Donald E Canfield1, Simon W Poulton, Andrew H Knoll
1Nordic Center for Earth Evolution and Institute of Biology, Campusvej 55, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark. dec@biology.sdu.dk
Abstract:
Earth's surface chemical environment has evolved from an early anoxic condition to the oxic state we have today. Transitional between an earlier Proterozoic world with widespread deep-water anoxia and a Phanerozoic world with large oxygen-utilizing animals, the Neoproterozoic Era [1000 to 542 million years ago (Ma)] plays a key role in this history. The details of Neoproterozoic Earth surface oxygenation, however, remain unclear. We report that through much of the later Neoproterozoic (<742 +/- 6 Ma), anoxia remained widespread beneath the mixed layer of the oceans; deeper water masses were sometimes sulfidic but were mainly Fe2+-enriched. These ferruginous conditions marked a return to ocean chemistry not seen for more than one billion years of Earth history.
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