We comprehensively compile and review N content in geologic materials to calculate a new N budget for Earth. Using analyses of rocks and minerals in conjunction with N–Ar geochemistry demonstrates that the Bulk Silicate Earth (BSE) contains ~ 7 ± 4 times present atmospheric N (4 × 1018 kg N, or PAN), with 27 ± 16 × 1018 kg N. Comparison to chondritic composition, after subtracting N sequestered into the core, yields a consistent result, with BSE N between 17 ± 13 × 1018 kg to 31 ± 24 × 1018 kg N. Embedded in the chondritic comparison we calculate a N mass in Earth’s core (180 ± 110 to 30 ± 180 × 1018 kg) as well as present discussion of the Moon as a proxy for the early mantle.
The determination of an exoplanet as rocky is critical for the assessment of planetary habitability. Observationally, the number of small-radius, transiting planets with accompanying mass measurements is insufficient for a robust determination of the transitional mass or radius. Theoretically, models predict that rocky planets can grow large enough to become gas giants when they reach ~10 MEarth, but the transitional mass remains unknown. Here I show how transit data, interpreted in the context of tidal theory, can reveal the critical radius that separates rocky and gaseous exoplanets. Standard tidal models predict that rocky exoplanets’ orbits are tidally circularized much more rapidly than gaseous bodies’, suggesting the former will tend to be found on circular orbits at larger semi-major axes than the latter. Well-sampled transits can provide a minimum eccentricity of the orbit, allowing a measurement of this differential circularization. I show that this effect should be present in the data from the Kepler spacecraft, but is not apparent. Instead, it appears that there is no evidence of tidal circularization at any planetary radius, probably because the publicly-available data, particularly the impact parameters, are not accurate enough. I also review the bias in the transit duration towards values that are smaller than that of planets on circular orbits, stressing that the azimuthal velocity of the planet determines the transit duration. The ensemble of Kepler planet candidates may be able to determine the critical radius between rocky and gaseous exoplanets, tidal dissipation as a function of planetary radius, and discriminate between tidal models.
Organic and inorganic carbon isotope records reflect the burial of organic carbon over geological timescales. Permanent burial of organic carbon in the crust or mantle oxidizes the surface environment (atmosphere, ocean and biosphere) by removing reduced carbon. It has been claimed that both organic and inorganic carbon isotope ratios have remained approximately constant throughout Earth’s history, thereby implying that the flux of organic carbon burial relative to the total carbon input has remained fixed and cannot be invoked to explain the rise of atmospheric oxygen (Schidlowski, 1988; Catling and others, 2001; Holland, 2002; Holland, 2009; Kump and others, 2009; Rothman, 2015). However, the opposite conclusion has been drawn from the same carbon isotope record (Des Marais and others, 1992; Bjerrum and Canfield, 2004). To test these opposing claims, we compiled an updated carbon isotope database and applied both parametric and non-parametric statistical models to the data to quantify trends and mean-level changes in fractional organic carbon burial with associated uncertainties and confidence levels.
Most of the properties of the Earth–Moon system can be explained by a collision between a planetary embryo (giant impactor) and the growing Earth late in the accretion process1,2,3. Simulations show that most of the material that eventually aggregates to form the Moon originates from the impactor1,4,5. However, analysis of the terrestrial and lunar isotopic compositions show them to be highly similar6,7,8,9,10,11. In contrast, the compositions of other Solar System bodies are significantly different from those of the Earth and Moon12,13,14, suggesting that different Solar System bodies have distinct compositions. This challenges the giant impact scenario, because the Moon-forming impactor must then also be thought to have a composition different from that of the proto-Earth. Here we track the feeding zones of growing planets in a suite of simulations of planetary accretion15, to measure the composition of Moon-forming impactors. We find that different planets formed in the same simulation have distinct compositions, but the compositions of giant impactors are statistically more similar to the planets they impact. A large fraction of planet–impactor pairs have almost identical compositions. Thus, the similarity in composition between the Earth and Moon could be a natural consequence of a late giant impact.
The advent of oxygenic photosynthesis set the stage for the evolution of complex life on an oxygenated planet, but it is unknown when this transformative biochemistry emerged. The existing hydrocarbon biomarker record requires that oxygenic photosynthesis and eukaryotes emerged more than 300 million years before the Great Oxidation Event [∼2.4 billion years ago (Ga)]. We report that hopane and sterane concentrations measured in new ultraclean Archean drill cores from Australia are comparable to blank concentrations, yet their concentrations in the exteriors of conventionally collected cores of stratigraphic equivalence exceed blank concentrations by more than an order of magnitude due to surficial contamination. Consequently, previous hydrocarbon biomarker reports no longer provide valid evidence for the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis and eukaryotes by ∼2.7 Ga.
High methane concentrations are thought to have helped sustain warm surface temperatures on the early Earth (~3 billion years ago) when the sun was only 80% as luminous as today. However, radiative transfer calculations with updated spectral data show that methane is a stronger absorber of solar radiation than previously thought. In this paper we show that the increased solar absorption causes a redcution in the warming ability of methane in the Archaean atmosphere.
We test this idea with Se data from the 2.5 Ga Mount McRae Shale (Hamersley Basin, Australia), which records temporary enrichments in abundances and isotopes of other redox-sensitive elements indicating a “whiff of oxygen” in Earth’s atmosphere before the Great Oxidation Event. Se isotopic ratios expressed as δ82/78Se and abundances relative to crustal background show significant positive excursions of up to 1.1‰ and an enrichment 13 times above background, respectively, overlapping with excursions in Mo and N isotopes and abundances. Because Se has a relatively high redox potential and photosynthetic oxidation pathways are unknown, our data thus suggest that Se was mobilized by free O2 during this interval. The isotopic fractionation likely occurred during transport of Se oxyanions from the site of weathering to the outer shelf.
Here we propose that NH3 volatilization is largely responsible for δ15N values of up to +50% at high C/N ratios in the late Archean Tumbiana Formation. This sequence of sedimentary rocks represents a system of lakes that formed on subaerial flood basalts and were partly filled by basaltic volcanic ash. Aqueous alteration of volcanic glass followed by evaporative concentration of ions should have led to the development of high alkalinity with a pH of 9 or higher, as in modern analogues. In this sedimentologically unusual setting, nitrogen isotope ratios thus provide indirect evidence for the oldest alkaline lake system in the rock record. These very heavy lacustrine δ15N values contrast markedly with those of Archean marine sedimentary rocks, making a Precambrian “soda ocean” unlikely. Today, alkaline lakes are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth. Some nutrients, in particular molybdenum, are more soluble at high pH, and certain prebiotic reactions would likely have been favored under alkaline conditions in similar settings earlier in Earth’s history. Hence alkaline lakes in the Archean could have been significant for the origin and early evolution of life.
Here we present nitrogen isotope ratios with a mean of 0.0 ± 1.2‰ from marine and fluvial sedimentary rocks of prehnite-pumpellyite to greenschist metamorphic grade between 3.2 and 2.75 billion years ago. These data cannot readily be explained by abiotic processes and therefore suggest biological nitrogen fixation, most probably using molybdenum-based nitrogenase as opposed to other variants that impart significant negative fractionations. Our data place a minimum age constraint of 3.2 billion years on the origin of biological nitrogen fixation and suggest that molybdenum was bioavailable in the mid-Archaean ocean long before the Great Oxidation Event.
We show that terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of M dwarfs older than ∼1 Gyr could have been in runaway greenhouses for several hundred million years following their formation due to the star’s extended pre-main sequence phase, provided they form with abundant surface water. Such prolonged runaway greenhouses can lead to planetary evolution divergent from that of Earth. During this early runaway phase, photolysis of water vapor and hydrogen/oxygen escape to space can lead to the loss of several Earth oceans of water from planets throughout the habitable zone, regardless of whether the escape is energy-limited or diffusion-limited.
(FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 2015)
We propose several changes to the method, the most important of which is increasing the maximum possible drop size from to be consistent with new large datasets of raindrop observations. With these changes, our upper bound on modern surface density becomes , a valid limit. The upper bound on Archean atmospheric density is then revised to . In general, we find that raindrop imprint size distribution depends much more strongly on rainfall rate than atmospheric density, which translates into large errors. At best, the precision of raindrop palaeopycnometry will be a factor of a few to an order of magnitude.