Marine sulphate captures a Paleozoic transition to a modern terrestrial weathering environment.

ABSTRACT: The triple oxygen isotope composition of sulphate minerals has been used to constrain the evolution of Earth's surface environment (e.g., pO₂, pCO₂ and gross primary productivity) throughout the Proterozoic Eon. This approach presumes the incorporation of atmospheric O₂ atoms into riverine sulphate via the oxidative weathering of pyrite. However, this is not borne out in recent geological or modern sulphate records, where an atmospheric signal is imperceptible and where terrestrial pyrite weathering occurs predominantly in bedrock fractures that are physically more removed from atmospheric O₂. To better define the transition from a Proterozoic to a modern-like weathering regime, here we present new measurements from twelve marine evaporite basins

SUBMITTER: Waldeck AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11873193 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature