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Science 12 August 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5737, pp. 1025 - 1027
DOI: 10.1126/science.1112552
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Perspectives

GEOCHEMISTRY:
Biogeochemical Cycling of Iron Isotopes

Clark M. Johnson and Brian L. Beard

Iron is the most abundant element on Earth that undergoes reduction-oxidation (redox) reactions. Moreover, the ratio of the iron isotopes 56Fe and 54Fe can change during these redox reactions. As Johnson and Beard discuss in their Perspective, this isotope fractionation has attracted interest as a way of understanding important biogeochemical processes on Earth over time. This isotope system may help unravel some of the questions surrounding changes in atmospheric oxygen and the origin and evolution of life over the past 4 billion years.

The authors are in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. E-mail: clarkj{at}geology.wisc.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Iron isotopes constrain the pathways and formation mechanisms of terrestrial oxide concretions: A tool for tracing iron cycling on Mars?.
M. A. Chan, C. M. Johnson, B. L. Beard, J. R. Bowman, and W.T. Parry (2006)
Geosphere 2, 324-332
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)