The oxidation state of Hadean magmas and implications for early Earth's atmosphere - PubMed

Affiliations

• PMID: 22129728
• DOI: 10.1038/nature10655

The oxidation state of Hadean magmas and implications for early Earth's atmosphere

Dustin Trail et al. Nature. 2011.

Abstract

Magmatic outgassing of volatiles from Earth's interior probably played a critical part in determining the composition of the earliest atmosphere, more than 4,000 million years (Myr) ago. Given an elemental inventory of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur, the identity of molecular species in gaseous volcanic emanations depends critically on the pressure (fugacity) of oxygen. Reduced melts having oxygen fugacities close to that defined by the iron-wüstite buffer would yield volatile species such as CH(4), H(2), H(2)S, NH(3) and CO, whereas melts close to the fayalite-magnetite-quartz buffer would be similar to present-day conditions and would be dominated by H(2)O, CO(2), SO(2) and N(2) (refs 1-4). Direct constraints on the oxidation state of terrestrial magmas before 3,850 Myr before present (that is, the Hadean eon) are tenuous because the rock record is sparse or absent. Samples from this earliest period of Earth's history are limited to igneous detrital zircons that pre-date the known rock record, with ages approaching ∼4,400 Myr (refs 5-8). Here we report a redox-sensitive calibration to determine the oxidation state of Hadean magmatic melts that is based on the incorporation of cerium into zircon crystals. We find that the melts have average oxygen fugacities that are consistent with an oxidation state defined by the fayalite-magnetite-quartz buffer, similar to present-day conditions. Moreover, selected Hadean zircons (having chemical characteristics consistent with crystallization specifically from mantle-derived melts) suggest oxygen fugacities similar to those of Archaean and present-day mantle-derived lavas as early as ∼4,350 Myr before present. These results suggest that outgassing of Earth's interior later than ∼200 Myr into the history of Solar System formation would not have resulted in a reducing atmosphere.

Comment in

• Earth science: Redox state of early magmas.

  Scaillet B, Gaillard F. Scaillet B, et al. Nature. 2011 Nov 30;480(7375):48-9. doi: 10.1038/480048a. Nature. 2011. PMID: 22129723 No abstract available.

Similar articles

• Origin and significance of Si and O isotope heterogeneities in Phanerozoic, Archean, and Hadean zircon.

  Trail D, Boehnke P, Savage PS, Liu MC, Miller ML, Bindeman I. Trail D, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Oct 9;115(41):10287-10292. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1808335115. Epub 2018 Sep 24. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018. PMID: 30249648 Free PMC article.

• Redox history of the Earth's interior since approximately 3900 Ma: implications for prebiotic molecules.

  Delano JW. Delano JW. Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2001 Aug-Oct;31(4-5):311-41. doi: 10.1023/a:1011895600380. Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2001. PMID: 11599174

• Hydrogen isotopic evidence for early oxidation of silicate Earth.

  Pahlevan K, Schaefer L, Hirschmann MM. Pahlevan K, et al. Earth Planet Sci Lett. 2019 Nov 15;526:115770. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115770. Epub 2019 Sep 4. Earth Planet Sci Lett. 2019. PMID: 33688096 Free PMC article.

• The role of biology in planetary evolution: cyanobacterial primary production in low-oxygen Proterozoic oceans.

  Hamilton TL, Bryant DA, Macalady JL. Hamilton TL, et al. Environ Microbiol. 2016 Feb;18(2):325-40. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.13118. Epub 2015 Dec 21. Environ Microbiol. 2016. PMID: 26549614 Free PMC article. Review.

• Biogeochemistry of dihydrogen (H2).

  Hoehler TM. Hoehler TM. Met Ions Biol Syst. 2005;43:9-48. doi: 10.1201/9780824751999.ch2. Met Ions Biol Syst. 2005. PMID: 16370113 Review.

Cited by

• Mantle redox state drives outgassing chemistry and atmospheric composition of rocky planets.

  Ortenzi G, Noack L, Sohl F, Guimond CM, Grenfell JL, Dorn C, Schmidt JM, Vulpius S, Katyal N, Kitzmann D, Rauer H. Ortenzi G, et al. Sci Rep. 2020 Jul 2;10(1):10907. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-67751-7. Sci Rep. 2020. PMID: 32616773 Free PMC article.

• Magma Ocean Depth and Oxygen Fugacity in the Early Earth--Implications for Biochemistry.

  Righter K. Righter K. Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2015 Sep;45(3):361-6. doi: 10.1007/s11084-015-9445-2. Epub 2015 Jun 3. Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2015. PMID: 26037825

• Thermodynamics, Disequilibrium, Evolution: Far-From-Equilibrium Geological and Chemical Considerations for Origin-Of-Life Research.

  Barge LM, Branscomb E, Brucato JR, Cardoso SS, Cartwright JH, Danielache SO, Galante D, Kee TP, Miguel Y, Mojzsis S, Robinson KJ, Russell MJ, Simoncini E, Sobron P. Barge LM, et al. Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2017 Mar;47(1):39-56. doi: 10.1007/s11084-016-9508-z. Epub 2016 Jun 6. Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2017. PMID: 27271006 No abstract available.

• Prebiotic thiol-catalyzed thioamide bond formation.

  Hyde AS, House CH. Hyde AS, et al. Geochem Trans. 2024 Aug 5;25(1):5. doi: 10.1186/s12932-024-00088-6. Geochem Trans. 2024. PMID: 39098875 Free PMC article.

• Selective prebiotic conversion of pyrimidine and purine anhydronucleosides into Watson-Crick base-pairing arabino-furanosyl nucleosides in water.

  Roberts SJ, Szabla R, Todd ZR, Stairs S, Bučar DK, Šponer J, Sasselov DD, Powner MW. Roberts SJ, et al. Nat Commun. 2018 Oct 4;9(1):4073. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06374-z. Nat Commun. 2018. PMID: 30287815 Free PMC article.

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

• Full Text Sources

  • Nature Publishing Group
  • Ovid Technologies, Inc.

• Medical

  • MedlinePlus Health Information