Chromium Isotopes in Carbonate Rocks: New Insights into Proterozoic Atmospheric Oxygenation

Abstract:

There has been a long-standing debate in geobiology about the role that Earth’s oxygenation played in the evolution of complex life. Temporal linkages exist between the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) and the evolution of eukaryotes, as well as Neoproterozoic rise in oxygen and the diversification of metazoans. Further advances have been hampered, however, by the lack of direct proxies that mark specific levels of atmospheric pO₂ in the geologic past. Chromium (Cr) isotopes show promise in this regard because the oxidation of Cr during terrestrial weathering—which results in isotopic fractionation—is dependent on a specific threshold of atmospheric pO₂ (0.1-1% of the present atmospheric level [PAL]). This threshold value broadly coincides with recent estimates of the oxygen requirements of early animals. Here we report new Cr-isotope data from four late Mesoproterozoic carbonate-dominated successions. Samples were collected from the Turukhansk Uplift (Siberia), the El Mreiti Group (Mauritania), the Vazante Group (Brazil), and the Angmaat Formation (Canada). We emphasize the application of Cr-isotopes to carbonate rocks because the broad temporal range of this lithology in the geologic record provides an opportunity to significantly expand our understanding of Proterozoic oxygenation on shorter time scales. Our data indicate that pO₂ levels required to support early animals were attained long before Neoproterozoic metazoan diversification, although the large degree of isotopic heterogeneity in our dataset may indicate that pO₂ > 0.1-1% PAL was only a transient phenomenon in the Mesoproterozoic. This study demonstrates the utility of Cr-isotopes as an atmospheric redox proxy in carbonate rocks and helps inform future avenues of research on Proterozoic pO₂ thresholds.