A team of geologists at Caltech has overturned a long-standing theory regarding a massive global change in Earth’s ancient carbon cycle. For decades, a famous 2-billion-year-old chemical signature found in sedimentary strata was believed to represent a planet-wide atmospheric transformation. However, new high-resolution isotope geochemistry analysis indicates that this signal was actually created by highly localized magma intrusions interacting with hydrocarbons and methane-eating microbes. This vital correction forces scientists to re-examine what was physically occurring on the surface during the Great Oxidation Event.
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