Biogenic Methane, Hydrogen Escape, and the Irreversible Oxidation of Early Earth-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Biogenic Methane, Hydrogen Escape, and the Irreversible Oxidation of Early Earth

Published:2001-08-03 Issue:5531 Volume:293 Page:839-843
ISSN:0036-8075
Container-title:Science
language:en
Short-container-title:Science

Author:

Catling David C.¹²,Zahnle Kevin J.¹,McKay Christopher P.¹

Affiliation:

1. Mail Stop 245-3, Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA.

2. SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

Abstract

The low O 2 content of the Archean atmosphere implies that methane should have been present at levels ∼10 2 to 10 3 parts per million volume (ppmv) (compared with 1.7 ppmv today) given a plausible biogenic source. CH 4 is favored as the greenhouse gas that countered the lower luminosity of the early Sun. But abundant CH 4 implies that hydrogen escapes to space (↑space) orders of magnitude faster than today. Such reductant loss oxidizes the Earth. Photosynthesis splits water into O 2 and H, and methanogenesis transfers the H into CH 4 . Hydrogen escape after CH 4 photolysis, therefore, causes a net gain of oxygen [CO 2 + 2H 2 O → CH 4 + 2O 2 → CO 2 + O 2 + 4H(↑space)]. Expected irreversible oxidation (∼10 12 to 10 13 moles oxygen per year) may help explain how Earth's surface environment became irreversibly oxidized.

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Subject

Multidisciplinary

Reference65 articles.

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