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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Simon Poulton, Gordon Ross, Dr Tatiana Goldberg
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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.
Author(s): Canfield DE, Poulton SW, Knoll AH, Narbonne GM, Ross G, Goldberg T, Strauss H
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Science
Year: 2008
Volume: 321
Issue: 5891
Pages: 949-952
ISSN (print): 0036-8075
ISSN (electronic): 1095-9203
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1154499
DOI: 10.1126/science.1154499
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