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Published Online March 4, 2004
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1091785

Reports

Submitted on September 23, 2003
Accepted on February 24, 2004

Molybdenum Isotope Evidence for Widespread Anoxia in Mid-Proterozoic Oceans

G. L. Arnold 1*, A. D. Anbar 2, J. Barling 3, T. W. Lyons 4

1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
2 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences; Department of Chemistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
3 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA; Present address: Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia,Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.
4 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gail{at}earth.rochester.edu.

How much dissolved O2 was present in the mid-Proterozoic oceans between 1.8 and 1.0 billion years ago is debated vigorously. One model argues for oxygenation of the oceans soon after the initial rise of atmospheric O2 ~ 2.3 billion years ago. Recent evidence for H2S in some mid-Proterozoic marine basins suggests, however, that the deep ocean remained anoxic until much later. New Mo isotope data from modern and ancient sediments indicate expanded anoxia during the mid-Proterozoic compared to the present-day ocean. Consequently, oxygenation of the deep oceans may have lagged the atmosphere by over a billion years.


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