{"id":183034,"date":"2025-12-09T14:23:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T14:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/183034\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T14:23:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T14:23:06","slug":"a-new-study-reveals-how-oxygen-first-reached-earths-oceans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/183034\/","title":{"rendered":"A new study reveals how oxygen first reached Earth\u2019s oceans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photos available for use with credit can be found here. <\/a><\/p>\n

Woods Hole, Mass (December 9, 2025) \u2013\u00a0 For roughly two billion years of Earth\u2019s early history, the atmosphere contained no oxygen, the essential ingredient required for complex life. Oxygen began building up during the period known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), but when and how it first entered the oceans has remained uncertain.<\/p>\n

A new study published in shows that oxygen was absorbed from the atmosphere into the shallow oceans within just a few million years\u2014a geological blink of an eye. Led by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI<\/a>), the work provides new insight into one of the most important environmental shifts in Earth\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point in Earth\u2019s history, nearly all life was in the oceans. For complex life to develop, organisms first had to learn not only to use oxygen, but simply to tolerate it,\u201d said Andy Heard<\/a>, lead author of the study and assistant scientist at WHOI. \u201cUnderstanding when oxygen first accumulated in Earth\u2019s atmosphere and oceans is essential to tracing the evolution of life. And because ocean oxygenation appears to have followed atmospheric oxygen surprisingly quickly, it suggests that if we detect oxygen in the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet, there\u2019s a strong chance its oceans also contain oxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers used new chemical analyses of black shales, organic-rich marine sedimentary rocks from South Africa, that formed in the ocean during the ongoing Great Oxidation Event. They found that the trace metal vanadium saw a shift in the relative abundance of its stable isotopes in shales formed before and after the stratigraphic level marking the occurrence of oxygenation in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa is one of the few places on Earth with exceptionally well-preserved rock records from this pivotal time in our planet\u2019s history. These sedimentary rocks play host to some of our strongest indicators for the rise of atmospheric oxygen,\u201d said Chad Ostrander<\/a>, one of the study\u2019s co-authors and an isotope geochemist at the University of Utah. \u201cThese rocks have relatively tight age constraints, and within them we see the disappearance of sulfur mass-independent fractionation\u2014the traditional \u2018smoking gun\u2019 evidence for a GOE.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVanadium is especially powerful because it responds to relatively high levels of dissolved oxygen compared to other geochemical proxies used for this period of Earth\u2019s history. That means we can detect when oxygen in the oceans first rose above roughly 10 micromoles per liter\u2014a few percent of modern levels,\u201d said Sune Nielsen<\/a>, one of the study’s co-authors and adjunct scientist at WHOI. Nielsen is also noted as one of the first scientists to use the vanadium isotope redox method to study past ocean oxygen levels. \u201cFor context, today\u2019s oceans average about 170 micromoles of dissolved oxygen per liter. It\u2019s not much by modern standards, but in oceans that were previously almost entirely oxygen-free, it represents a major step in Earth\u2019s oxygenation.\u201d<\/p>\n

These findings show that Earth\u2019s oceans began accumulating oxygen far earlier, and more rapidly, than previously thought, reshaping our understanding of how the planet became habitable for complex life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study helps clarify one of the biggest turning points in Earth\u2019s history,\u201d Heard continued. \u201cBy tracing when oxygen first reached the oceans, we\u2019re getting closer to understanding how the conditions for complex life emerged on our planet\u2014and how they might arise elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

This work was funded by NASA Exobiology, the WHOI postdoctoral scholar program, the Agouron Institute Fellowship in Geobiology, Discovery and Accelerator Grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, ACS Petroleum Fund, and the Natural Environmental Research Council.<\/p>\n

About Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution<\/p>\n

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Founded in 1930, its mission is to understand the ocean, its interactions with the Earth, and its role in a changing global environment. WHOI\u2019s pioneering discoveries arise from a unique blend of science and engineering that has made it one of the world\u2019s most trusted leaders in ocean research and exploration. Known for its multidisciplinary approach, advanced ship operations, and unmatched deep-sea robotics, WHOI also operates the most extensive suite of ocean data-gathering platforms worldwide. More than 800 concurrent projects\u2014driven by top scientists, engineers, and students\u2014push the boundaries of knowledge to inform people and policy for a healthier planet. Behind the scenes, ship captains, mates, craftsmen, marine operations, and other skilled professionals provide essential support that makes this work possible. Learn more at whoi.edu.<\/p>\n

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