Work

Nitrogen Isotopic Composition and Density of the Archean Atmosphere

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: Understanding the atmosphere's composition during the Archean eon is fundamental to unraveling ancient environmental conditions. We show from the analysis of nitrogen and argon isotopes in fluid inclusions trapped in 3.0- to 3.5-billion-year-old hydrothermal quartz that the partial pressure of N2 of the Archean atmosphere was lower than 1.1 bar, possibly as low as 0.5 bar, and had a nitrogen isotopic composition comparable to the present-day one. These results imply that dinitrogen did not play a significant role in the thermal budget of the ancient Earth and that the Archean partial pressure of CO2 was probably lower than 0.7 bar.

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.1240971

Authors: Bernard Marty, Laurent Zimmermann, Magali Pujol, Ray Burgess, Pascal Philippot

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, Université de Lorraine, University of Manchester, Institut de physique du globe de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Université Paris Diderot

Language: English

Topic: Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils

Subfield: Paleontology

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W2165004165

FWCI: 6.777

Cites: 37

Cited by: 216

Related to: 10