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Washington: A new study suggests that the Earth 's oxygen levels have increased and decreased more than a hundred million years before the global success of Greater Oxidation.
A study from the University of Washington shows evidence that indicates a "puff" of oxygen much earlier in the distant past of the Earth in the atmosphere and on the surface of the earth. a large expanse of ocean showing that the oxygenation of the Earth was a complex process of repeated tests and failures over a vast span of time.
The results may also have implications for the search for life beyond the Earth.
"The production and destruction of oxygen in the ocean and the atmosphere over time was a war without evidence.," Said Matt Koehler, lead author of the US. ;study.
For the study, the researchers used two different proxies for oxygen, namely the nitrogen isotopes and the element selenium, substances that, each in its path, speak also the presence of oxygen
Nitrogen isotopes have revealed the activity of some marine microorganisms that use oxygen to form nitrate and other microorganisms. organisms that use this nitrate as a source of energy. The data collected from the isotopes of nitrogen sample the surface of the ocean, while selenium suggests oxygen in the air of the ancient Earth.
The team found abundant selenium in the shallow hole. to the deeper water. Selenium is retained in sulfurous minerals on Earth, a higher oxygen content of the atmosphere would lead to the leaching of selenium from the earth by oxidative degradation.
The results are published in the Journal of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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