A new wrinkle in ancient ocean chemistry

A UC Riverside-led study reports on the effects of biological oxygen production nearly 100 million years before oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere

		IMAGE: UC Riverside's Chris Reinhard analyzes metal content in 2.5 billion-year-old black shale using a mass spectrometer seen to his left. Click here for more information.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Scientists widely accept that around 2.4 billion years ago, the Earth's atmosphere underwent a dramatic change when oxygen levels rose sharply. Called the "Great Oxidation Event" (GOE), the oxygen spike marks an important milestone in Earth's history, the transformation from an oxygen-poor atmosphere to an oxygen-rich one paving the way for complex life to develop on the planet.