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The rise of free oxygen may have initiated on marine mud

Nature Geoscience volume 18, pages 1202–1208 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Great Oxidation Event across the Archaean–Proterozoic transition was one of the most transformative environmental changes in Earth history. However, uncertainties remain about when and where it began. Here we synthesize the phylogenetic record of cyanobacteria and geochemical records of nitrogen and thallium isotopes and find converging evidence for oxygenated bottom waters on marine shelves in the Neoarchaean about 200 million years before the Great Oxidation Event. The O2 was produced by benthic microbial mats, the dominant morphotypes of cyanobacteria at that time. Conditions were sufficiently oxidizing to stabilize nitrate and manganese oxides in sediments. Box modelling shows that micromolar levels of dissolved O2 were attainable in this scenario under plausible Archaean conditions. The rise of O2 was initiated on marine mud according to our synthesis. Productive Neoarchaean shelves may have been more oxidizing at the bottom than the top, consistent with the ‘upside down’ Archaean biosphere hypothesis.

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Fig. 1: Isotopic data from the 2.5-Ga Mount McRae Shale (core ABDP9) support oxygenated marine bottom waters before the GOE.
Box Fig. 1: Nitrogen isotope fractionation example models.
Fig. 2: Dissolved O2 concentrations in shelf waters above oxygen-producing microbial mats, derived from a simple box model.
Fig. 3: Hypothetical cross-section for an ‘upside down’ Neoarchaean continental shelf.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Gehringer for helpful discussions. C.M.O. acknowledges financial support from NASA Exobiology grant no. 80NSSC22K1628. Financial support to E.E.S. and J.S.B. was provided by a NERC Frontiers grant to E.E.S. (NE/V010824/1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Joanne S. Boden & Eva E. Stüeken

  2. Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Chadlin M. Ostrander

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  1. Joanne S. Boden
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  2. Chadlin M. Ostrander
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J.S.B., C.M.O. and E.E.S. conceptualized the project and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Chadlin M. Ostrander.

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Boden, J.S., Ostrander, C.M. & Stüeken, E.E. The rise of free oxygen may have initiated on marine mud. Nat. Geosci. 18, 1202–1208 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01867-1

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