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Atmospheric oxygenation

Oscillating Archean oxygen oases

Nature Geoscience volume 18, pages 372–373 (2025)Cite this article

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The rise of oxygen in the early Earth’s atmosphere remains enigmatic in its timing and extent. Insights from thallium isotopes in Archean shales suggest that it may have experienced flips in oxygenation on a global scale prior to 2.5 billion years ago.

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Fig. 1: Marine oxygen oases as calculated by Olson et al.2.

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  1. Department of Geosciences, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA

    James Kasting

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  1. James Kasting
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Correspondence to James Kasting.

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Kasting, J. Oscillating Archean oxygen oases. Nat. Geosci. 18, 372–373 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01690-8

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