Atmospheric Persistence: The Isotopic Memory Of Ancient Rocks

Chemical analysis of some of the world’s oldest rocks has provided the earliest record yet of Earth's atmosphere and shows that the air 4 billion years ago was very similar a billion years later, when the atmosphere, though it likely would have been lethal to oxygen-dependent humans, supported a thriving microbial biosphere that ultimately gave rise to the diversity of life on Earth today.Until now, researchers have had to rely on widely varying computer models of the earliest atmosphere's characteristics. read more

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