atmosphere

Clues to Archean Skies Trapped in Ancient Carbon

Clues to Archean Skies in Ancient Carbon

Xenon is a noble gas found in tiny amounts in the atmosphere, but this unreactive element has had a turbulent history on Earth. Much of the original atmospheric xenon likely came from a mixture of meteors and comets during the final stages of Earth’s accretion. Later, in the Archean eon, most of the primordial xenon escaped to space as the atmosphere changed and evolved. New research finds evidence of these atmospheric events, and the transition from primordial to modern xenon compositions, preserved inside ancient carbonaceous compounds.

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Clues to Archean Skies in Ancient Carbon 13 April 2018 Feature

In a new paper in Science Advances [1], David Bekaert, with DCO Reservoirs and Fluxes Community…

Degassing from Continental Rifts Controls Earth’s Thermostat 29 November 2017 Feature

In a new paper in Nature Geoscience [1], Sascha Brune (GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences,…

When Continents Tear Apart, Stored Carbon Escapes 27 November 2017 Feature

Scientists are beginning to recognize that continental rifts, where the crust rips apart in the…

Chemical Tug-of-War Determines Composition of Nitrogen in the Atmosphere 17 November 2017 Feature

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Alkaline Springs May Signal an Overlooked Part of the Methane Budget 2 August 2017 Feature

Much research on subsurface methane has focused on biotic methane, which is produced by…

Deep Burial of Organic Carbon into the Mantle Enabled “Great Oxidation Event” 25 April 2017 Feature

The rise across GOE and the subsequent increases in Earth’s atmospheric oxygen enabled the…

Model of Australia’s Tectonic Stress May Future-Proof Carbon Storage 7 April 2017 Feature

The general strategy is to inject carbon dioxide more than a mile underground, beneath an…

Transformational Instrumentation Differentiates Abiotic vs. Biotic Methane 28 February 2017 Feature

The Deep Carbon Observatory helped launch a new era of high-tech sleuthing when Young et al. (2016…

Exhaling Earth: Scientists Closer to Forecasting Volcanic Eruptions 6 October 2016 Feature

Sniffing volcano breath may improve forecasts of eruptions New tools measure volcanic carbon…

The Oxygenation of Earth’s Atmosphere, Plate Tectonics, and the Deep Carbon Cycle 16 May 2016 Feature

Earth scientists from Rice University, Yale University and the University of Tokyo are offering a…