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Originally published in Science Express on 4 March 2004
Science 2 April 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5667, pp. 87 - 90
DOI: 10.1126/science.1091785
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Reports

Molybdenum Isotope Evidence for Widespread Anoxia in Mid-Proterozoic Oceans

G. L. Arnold,1* A. D. Anbar,1,2 J. Barling,1{dagger} T. W. Lyons3

How much dissolved oxygen 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 oxygen ~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 molybdenum 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 that of the atmosphere by over a billion years.

1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
2 Department of Chemistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
3 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.



{dagger} Present address: Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.

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

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