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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Stretching the envelope of past surface environments : Neoproterozoic glacial lakes from Svalbard.
AU - Bao, Huiming
AU - Fairchild, Ian J.
AU - Wynn, Peter M.
AU - Spotl, Christoph
PY - 2009/1/2
Y1 - 2009/1/2
N2 - The oxygen isotope composition of terrestrial sulfate is affected measurably by many Earth- surface processes. During the Neoproterozoic, severe " snowball" glaciations would have had an extreme impact on the biosphere and the atmosphere. Here, we report that sulfate extracted from carbonate lenses within a Neoproterozoic glacial diamictite suite from Svalbard, with an age of similar to 635 million years ago, falls well outside the currently known natural range of triple oxygen isotope compositions and indicates that the atmosphere had either an exceptionally high atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration or an utterly unfamiliar oxygen cycle during deposition of the diamictites.
AB - The oxygen isotope composition of terrestrial sulfate is affected measurably by many Earth- surface processes. During the Neoproterozoic, severe " snowball" glaciations would have had an extreme impact on the biosphere and the atmosphere. Here, we report that sulfate extracted from carbonate lenses within a Neoproterozoic glacial diamictite suite from Svalbard, with an age of similar to 635 million years ago, falls well outside the currently known natural range of triple oxygen isotope compositions and indicates that the atmosphere had either an exceptionally high atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration or an utterly unfamiliar oxygen cycle during deposition of the diamictites.
KW - OLIGOCENE ASH BED
KW - TILLITE ASSOCIATION
KW - PYRITE OXIDATION
KW - ISOTOPIC-RATIOS
KW - OXYGEN-ISOTOPE
KW - SNOWBALL EARTH
KW - CO2 LEVELS
KW - SULFATE
KW - SULFUR
KW - SPITSBERGEN
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=58149270947&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/science.1165373
DO - 10.1126/science.1165373
M3 - Journal article
VL - 323
SP - 119
EP - 122
JO - Science
JF - Science
SN - 0036-8075
IS - 5910
ER -