Mineral–microbe interactions play important roles in environmental change, biogeochemical
cycling of elements and formation of ore deposits. Minerals provide both beneficial (physical …

The rapid increase of carbon dioxide concentration in Earth's modern atmosphere is a
matter of major concern. But for the atmosphere of roughly two-and-half billion years ago …

Molecular oxygen (O2) is, and has been, a primary driver of biological evolution and shapes
the contemporary landscape of Earth's biogeochemical cycles. Although “whiffs” of oxygen …

It is widely assumed that atmospheric oxygen concentrations remained persistently low (less
than 10− 5 times present levels) for about the first 2 billion years of Earth's history. The first …

The ancestors of cyanobacteria generated Earth's first biogenic molecular oxygen, but how
they dealt with oxidative stress remains unconstrained. Here we investigate when …

Over the past century a number of models have been developed to explain the vast
stratigraphic distribution of authigenic dolomite. These models include hydrogeological …

The oxygenation of Earth's surface fundamentally altered global biogeochemical cycles and
ultimately paved the way for the rise of metazoans at the end of the Proterozoic. However …

Iron formations (IF) represent an iron-rich rock type that typifies many Archaean and
Proterozoic supracrustal successions and are chemical archives of Precambrian seawater …

The atmosphere–ocean system experienced a progressive change from anoxic to more
oxidizing conditions through time. This oxidation is traditionally envisaged to have occurred …

The secular trend of seawater strontium isotope ratio (87 Sr/86 Sr) reflects changes in the
relative contributions of continental versus mantle reservoirs to ocean composition, and …