‘Great Oxidation Event’ in News

Researchers provided a fresh insights into the “Great Oxidation Event” (GOE), in which oxygen first appeared in the Earth’s atmosphere more than 2.3 billion years ago.

Team of researchers has uncovered evidence of an interaction between nitrogen and oxygen in ancient rocks from South Africa.

The discovery not only illuminates how life evolved alongside changes in the chemistry of the Earth’s surface, but also fills in a 400-million-year gap in geochemical records.

Working with cores of sedimentary rock from the South African town of Donkerhoek, researchers used nitrogen stable isotopic analysis to record environmental conditions during the GOE. They found that the first occurrence of widespread nitrate coincided with the initial appearance of oxygen in the atmosphere.

Estimated concentration of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere over the Precambrian Era (4.56 to 0.541 billion years). During the GOE, oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere increased by as much as four orders of magnitude, near or above modern levels.

An essential element in all living organisms, nitrogen is responsible for the formation of proteins, amino acids, DNA and RNA. It also accounts for 80 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere.