Next time a volcano erupts, thank Nature - never mind, even it has ever devastated your homes and properties. After all it’s your life-giving source - oxygen!
Surprising true, but it is those fierce volcanoes dotting the earth’s surface that have made the planet worth living.
It all happened billions of years ago! Then, the earth was home largely to undersea volcanoes, but some previously unknown agent has been found to remove the gas.
But, the new study found that a mixture of gases and lavas produced by submarine volcanoes sucked the atmospheric oxygen to bind it into oxygen-containing minerals.
Thanks to the geologic record from the Archaean and the Palaeoproterozoic era, which were the resources to the finding!
Lee R. Kump, a professor of geosciences at Penn State University, working with a colleague at the University of Western Australia said,
The rise of oxygen allowed for the evolution of complex oxygen-breathing life forms.
The submarine volcanoes erupt at lower temperatures compared to that of their terrestrial counterparts. Thus, the submarine volcanoes are more efficient at converting, rather reducing oxygen.
So, the atmosphere had no oxygen as long as the reducing ability of the submarine volcanoes was larger than the amounts of oxygen produced. It was only when terrestrial volcanoes began to dominate the eruption frequency and amount, oxygen levels increased.
This atmospheric shift — from oxygen-free to oxygen-rich - may kick up controversies, but provides clear explanation on yet another life’s origin on the planet.
Image Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation
