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Starving bacteria bumped up early Earth's oxygen

 

HUNGRY nickel-grabbing bacteria could be to thank for the surge in atmospheric oxygen 2.5 billion years ago that made Earth hospitable to life.

 

Stefan Lalonde of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and colleagues measured the concentration of nickel deposited in layered sedimentary rocks, or "banded iron formations". They found that levels had dropped by two-thirds in the 200 million years prior to the "Great Oxygenation Event".

 

Starving bacteria bumped up early Earth's oxygen - environment - 21 January 2009 - New Scientist

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