Mineral evolution facilitated Earth’s oxidation

Abstract

AbstractOxygenation events remarkably altered the distribution, diversity, and abundance of minerals on Earth’s surface. However, the causality in the opposite direction—the influence of mineral evolution on atmospheric oxygen levels—has rarely been explored. Here I propose that mineral evolution might have led Earth’s oxygen cycle to lose stability, facilitating oxygenation events in deep time. First, I introduce a conceptual model for the system of organic matter and minerals and investigate their interactions via a probabilistic approach. Second, in light of the theoretical results, I suggest that the evolution of iron and clay minerals likely had an underappreciated relevance to the Great Oxidation Event and Neoproterozoic Oxidation Event, respectively. Finally, I use the parameter values estimated from observations in modern environments as benchmarks to test these speculations. This study provides a minimalistic theoretical framework illustrating the possible influence of mineral evolution on Earth’s oxygen cycle over geologic time.