Collaborative Research: "GOE-ing DEEP" into the Paleoproterozoic of Gabon to elucidate the causes and effects of Earth's Great Oxidation

Oxygen is crucial for macroscopic life, yet the causes and repercussions of its accumulation in the atmosphere are poorly understood. A key question for resolving the trajectory of planetary habitability is if chemical shifts recorded in ~2.4-2.0 billion-year-old rocks reflect global-scale oxygen changes or regional-local conditions. To answer this question, rock cores from Gabon, which hosts the best-preserved sedimentary archive across this interval, will be analyzed for possible chemical imprints of oxygenation. This project serves the national interest by promoting the progress of fundamental science that identifies how Earth became habitable. Synergistic outreach objectives include initiatives such as community tables at farmers’ markets from Northeast-Midwest USA to enhance public scientific literacy and undergraduate curriculum development to support an American STEM workforce that is globally competitive through improved education. This interdisciplinary project applies stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, geochemistry, and geochronology to assess whether extreme geochemical shifts in the wake of the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) reflect global, regional, or local-diagenetic conditions. Laterally correlative drill cores across shallow-to-deep paleoenvironments in the Francevillian sub-basins of Gabon will be applied to test the hypothesis that, in the Paleoproterozoic, there was a prolonged overshoot in O₂ coeval with a widespread perturbation of the carbon cycle. The objectives are: 1) Create a detailed stratigraphic framework and isolate primary magnetizations to examine facies and latitudinal climate-belt controls; 2) Assess a variety of isotopic and geochemical criteria in carbonates to determine if a primary “oxygen overshoot” is preserved; and 3) Apply U-Pb zircon geochronology/geochemistry and carbonate Rb-Sr isotope compositions to evaluate if geochemical shifts are of global relevance. The results will facilitate detailed tracking of the dynamics of oxygenation and concurrent environmental changes in the wake of the GOE—including extraordinary disturbances to the carbon cycle—that are key for deciphering this tipping point in the trajectory of planetary habitability. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.