The Great Oxygenation Event

The Great Oxygenation Event

World: The world was a very different place during the Great Oxygenation Event. At the beginning of this time, the Earth's atmosphere had very little oxygen, and was primarily composed of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. However, over the course of the event, photosynthetic organisms such as blue-green algae began to produce oxygen as a byproduct of their metabolic processes. This oxygen began to build up in the atmosphere, eventually leading to the oxygen-rich atmosphere that we have today.

Facts

Time: 2.4 billion years ago

1) The Great Oxygenation Event is considered to be one of the most significant events in the history of the Earth, as it led to the evolution of a wide variety of new organisms that could not have existed in the low-oxygen environment that existed prior to the event.

Duration: Several hundred million years

2) Prior to the Great Oxygenation Event, the Earth's atmosphere was primarily composed of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor.

Events: The major event during the Great Oxygenation Event was the rise in atmospheric oxygen levels due to the evolution of photosynthetic organisms. This led to a number of other significant events, including the extinction of many anaerobic organisms that were unable to survive in the new oxygen-rich environment. Additionally, the high levels of oxygen in the atmosphere allowed for the evolution of more complex multicellular organisms that required oxygen to survive.

3) The rise in atmospheric oxygen levels during the Great Oxygenation Event was due to the evolution of photosynthetic organisms such as blue-green algae, which produced oxygen as a byproduct of their metabolic processes.

Illustrations of cyanobacteria, the photosynthetic organisms that are thought to have been responsible for the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere

These scholarly references are extremely important and are detailed, cited on the next page.

Scholarly references: The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), also known as the Oxygen Catastrophe, is a significant event in Earth's history that occurred approximately 2.4 billion years ago. According to Olejarz et al. (2021), this event marked the first significant rise in atmospheric oxygen levels and had far-reaching consequences for the development of life on Earth. The authors argue that the event was the result of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change, specifically the rise of atmospheric oxygen levels. Thibon et al. (2019) provide further insight into the dynamics that preceded the GOE, specifically in relation to the role of oceanic iron. The authors suggest that a large influx of iron into the ocean occurred before the event, which subsequently led to an increase in photosynthetic activity and oxygen production. This increase in oxygen levels eventually led to the Oxygen Catastrophe, where the atmosphere became highly oxygenated.

Illustrations of the chemical processes involved in photosynthesis, which is the mechanism by which cyanobacteria produced oxygen

Scholarly sources cited

Olejarz, Jason et al. “The Great Oxygenation Event as a Consequence of Ecological Dynamics Modulated by Planetary Change.” Nature communications 12.1 (2021): 3985–3985. Web.

Thibon, Fanny et al. “Dynamics of Oceanic Iron Prior to the Great Oxygenation Event.” Earth and planetary science letters 506 (2019): 360–370. Web.