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Oxygen Catastrophe
 
 
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The Oxygen Catastrophe was a massive environmental change believed to have happened during the Siderian
Siderian

The Siderian is the first geologic geologic period in the Paleoproterozoic era and lasted from 2500 annum to 2300 Ma . Instead of being based on stratigraphy, these dates are defined chronometrically....
 period at the beginning of the Paleoproterozoic
Paleoproterozoic

The Paleoproterozoic is the first of the three sub-divisions of the Proterozoic occurring between . This is when the continents first stabilized....
 era
Era

An era is a commonly used word for long period of time. When used in science, for example geology, eras denote clearly defined periods of time of arbitrary but well defined length, such as for example the Mesozoic era from 252 Ma?66 Ma, delimited by a start event and an end event....
 of the Precambrian
Precambrian

The Precambrian is an informal name for the supereon comprising the eon of the geologic timescale that came before the current Phanerozoic eon....
, about 2.4 billion years ago. It is also called the Oxygen Crisis, Oxygen Revolution, or The Great Oxidation.

When evolving lifeforms developed oxyphotosynthesis
Oxygen evolution

Oxygen evolution is the process of generating molecular oxygen through chemical reaction. Mechanisms of oxygen evolution include the oxidation of water during oxygenic photosynthesis, electrolysis of water into oxygen and hydrogen, and electrocatalytic oxygen evolution from oxides and oxoacids....
 about 3.5 billion years ago, molecular oxygen
Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
 was initially produced in limited quantities.






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The Oxygen Catastrophe was a massive environmental change believed to have happened during the Siderian
Siderian

The Siderian is the first geologic geologic period in the Paleoproterozoic era and lasted from 2500 annum to 2300 Ma . Instead of being based on stratigraphy, these dates are defined chronometrically....
 period at the beginning of the Paleoproterozoic
Paleoproterozoic

The Paleoproterozoic is the first of the three sub-divisions of the Proterozoic occurring between . This is when the continents first stabilized....
 era
Era

An era is a commonly used word for long period of time. When used in science, for example geology, eras denote clearly defined periods of time of arbitrary but well defined length, such as for example the Mesozoic era from 252 Ma?66 Ma, delimited by a start event and an end event....
 of the Precambrian
Precambrian

The Precambrian is an informal name for the supereon comprising the eon of the geologic timescale that came before the current Phanerozoic eon....
, about 2.4 billion years ago. It is also called the Oxygen Crisis, Oxygen Revolution, or The Great Oxidation.

When evolving lifeforms developed oxyphotosynthesis
Oxygen evolution

Oxygen evolution is the process of generating molecular oxygen through chemical reaction. Mechanisms of oxygen evolution include the oxidation of water during oxygenic photosynthesis, electrolysis of water into oxygen and hydrogen, and electrocatalytic oxygen evolution from oxides and oxoacids....
 about 3.5 billion years ago, molecular oxygen
Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
 was initially produced in limited quantities. With time, this oxygen accummulated and eventually caused an ecological crisis to the biodiversity
Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems....
 of the time, as oxygen was toxic to the microscopic anaerobic organism
Anaerobic organism

An anaerobic organism is any organism that does not require oxygen for growth and may even die in its presence....
s dominant then.

However, this transforming change also provided a new opportunity for biological diversification
Evolution

In biology, evolution is change in the heritability trait of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection....
, as well as tremendous changes in the nature of chemical interactions between rocks
Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
, sand
Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.As the term is used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 to 2 millimeters....
, clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
, and other geological substrates and the earth's air, oceans, and other surface waters. Despite natural recycling of organic matter, life had remained energetically limited until the widespread availability of oxygen. This breakthrough in metabolic evolution greatly increased the free energy
Thermodynamic free energy

In thermodynamics, the term thermodynamic free energy refers to the amount of Work that can be extracted from a system, and is helpful in engineering applications....
 supply to living organisms, having a truly global environmental impact.

Time lag

There was a lag of about 300 million years between the time oxygen production from photosynthetic organisms started, and the time of the Oxygen Catastrophe's geologically rapid increase in atmospheric oxygen.

One phenomenon that explains this lag is that the oxygen increase had to await tectonically driven changes in the earth's 'anatomy,' including the appearance of shelf seas where reduced organic carbon could reach the sediments and be buried. Also, the newly produced oxygen was first consumed in various chemical reactions in the oceans, primarily with iron
Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
. Evidence for this phenomenon is found in older rocks that contain massive banded iron formation
Banded iron formation

Banded iron formations are a distinctive type of rock often found in primordial sedimentary rocks. The structures consist of repeated thin layers of iron oxides, either magnetite or hematite , alternating with bands of iron-poor shale and chert....
s that were apparently laid down as this iron and oxygen first combined; most of the planet's commercial iron ore
Iron ore

Iron ores are Rock and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in colour from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red....
 deposits are in these deposits. But these chemical phenomena do not seem to account for the lag completely.

Photosynthetic organisms were also a source of methane
Methane

Methane is a chemical compound with the molecular formula . It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.5 degrees....
, which was also a big trap for molecular oxygen, because methane oxidizes readily to carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalent bond to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state....
 (CO2) in the presence of UV radiation
Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than x-rays, in the range 400 nanometer to 10 nm, and energies from 3 Electron volt to 124 eV....
.

A 2006 (bistability
Bistability

Something that is bistable can be resting in two states. In physics, for an Statistical ensemble of particles, the bistability comes from the fact that its Thermodynamic free energy has three critical points....
) theory to explain the 300-million-year lag comes from a mathematical model of the atmosphere which recognizes that UV shielding decreases the rate of methane oxidation once oxygen levels are sufficient to support the formation of an ozone layer
Ozone layer

The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone . This layer absorbs 93-99% of the sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to life on earth....
. This explanation proposes a system with two steady state
Steady state

A system in a steady state has numerous properties that are unchanging in time. The concept of steady state has relevance in many fields, in particular thermodynamics....
s, one with lower (0.02%) atmospheric oxygen content, and the other with higher (21% or more) oxygen content. The Great Oxidation can then be understood as a switch between lower and upper stable steady states.

Another factor in the delay in atmospheric oxygen enrichment may have been photosynthetic production of molecular hydrogen
Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the chemical symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly combustion and explosive Diatomic molecule gas with the molecular formula H2....
 which, as it formed, got into the atmosphere and was slowly lost to space.

See also

  • Banded iron formation
    Banded iron formation

    Banded iron formations are a distinctive type of rock often found in primordial sedimentary rocks. The structures consist of repeated thin layers of iron oxides, either magnetite or hematite , alternating with bands of iron-poor shale and chert....
  • Iodide
    Iodide

    An iodide ion is an iodine with a −1 electric charge. Compounds with iodine in formal oxidation state −1 are called iodides. This can include ionic compounds such as caesium iodide or covalent compounds such as phosphorus triiodide....
  • Medea hypothesis
  • Pasteur point
    Pasteur point

    The Pasteur point is a level of oxygen above which aerobic microorganisms and facultative anaerobes adapt from anaerobic respiration to aerobic respiration....