Not so non-marine? Revisiting the Stoer Group and the Mesoproterozoic biosphere

Funding for this project was provided by the NASA postdoctoral program (EES), the Lewis and Clark Fund (EES), an NSERC PGS-D grant (EJB), the NSF ELT (TWL, NJP) and FESD (TWL) programs, and the NASA Astrobiology Institute (TWL, NJP).The Poll a’Mhuilt Member of the Stoer Group (Torridonian Supergroup) in Scotland has been heralded as a rare window into the ecology of Mesoproterozoic terrestrial environments. Its unusually high molybdenum concentrations and large sulphur isotope fractionations have been used as evidence to suggest that lakes 1.2 billion years ago were better oxygenated and enriched in key nutrients relative to contemporaneous oceans, making them ideal habitats for the evolution of eukaryotes. Here we show with new Sr and Mo isotope data, supported by sedimentological evidence, that the depositional setting of this unit was likely connected to the ocean and that the elevated Mo and S contents can be explained by evapo-concentration of seawater. Thus, it remains unresolved if Mesoproterozoic lakes were important habitats for early eukaryotic life.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Two-billion-year-old evaporites capture Earth's great oxidation

Funding sources: Simons Foundation (SCOL 339006 to C.L.B.), European Research Council (ERC Horizon 2020 grant 678812 to M.C.), Research Council of Norway (RCN Centres of Excellence funding scheme project 223259 to K.P. and A.L.), Estonian Science Agency (PUT696 to K.K., A.L., K.P., T.K.).Major changes in atmospheric and ocean chemistry occurred in the Paleoproterozoic Era (2.5–1.6 billion years ago). Increasing oxidation dramatically changed Earth’s surface, but few quantitative constraints exist on this important transition. This study describes the sedimentology, mineralogy, and geochemistry of a remarkably preserved two-billion-year-old and ~800 meter-thick evaporite succession from the Onega Basin in Russian Karelia. The deposit consists of a basal unit dominated by halite (~100 m) followed by anhydrite-magnesite (~500 m) and dolomite-magnesite (~200 m) dominated units. The evaporite minerals robustly constraint marine sulfate concentrations to at least 10 millimoles per kilogram of water, representing an oxidant reservoir equivalent to over 20% of the modern ocean-atmosphere oxidizing capacity. These results show that substantial amounts of surface oxidant accumulated during this critical transition in Earth’s oxygenation.PostprintPeer reviewe

Two diamictites, two cap carbonates, two 13C excursions, two breakups: Neoproterozoic rifting and the Kingston Peak Formation, Death Valley, California, USA

Stratigraphic mapping of the Neoproterozoic glaciogenic Kingston Peak Formation (Death Valley, California) provides evidence for two temporally discrete extensional deformation episodes. These episodes are bracketed by the Sourdough Limestone and Noonday Dolomite, the facies characteristics and delta(13)C data (ranging between 2.15 and -2.56 parts per thousand and -1.88 and -4.86 parts per thousand, respectively) of which make them equivalent to Sturtian and Varangian age cap carbonates, respectively. This constrains the two extensional episodes along the southwestern margin of Laurentia to ca. 700 Ma and ca. 600 Ma. These observations and data show that the field evidence for mid-Neoproterozoic breakup and the predictions from tectonic subsidence curves for a latest Neoproterozoic breakup are both correct. Thus, Neoproterozoic plate reconstructions must account for two discrete rift episodes separated by 100 m.y. or more. Confining rifting to within the Kingston Peak Formation thereby places the younger Proterozoic rocks of the southwestern Great Basin in the rift to drift tectonic phase.</p