Jian-Wei Zi

The organic carbon content of ancient rocks provides a fundamental record of the biosphere on early Earth. For over 50 y, the high organic content of Archean (>2.5 Ga) mudrocks has puzzled geologists and evolutionary biologists, because high biological primary productivity was unexpected for the nascent biosphere before the rise of O ₂ . Here, we took a different approach to resolve this apparent paradox, by studying the accumulation rates of Archean organic-rich mudrocks. We evaluated the sedimentation rates of three sections of the Mount McRae Shale and Jeerinah Formation (2.68 to 2.48 Ga, Pilbara Craton, Australia) with new and recently published U–Pb zircon ages from intraformational ash beds. For comparison, we compiled Phanerozoic (<500 Ma) data from comparable depositional settings and developed an idealized model that considers the sedimentation rates for predicting rock organic content. We found that organic-rich Archean mudrocks were deposited under exceptionally low sedimentation rates (~1 m/Ma), in sharp contrast to organic-rich rocks from the Phanerozoic Eon (10 to 100 m/Ma). Constrained by observations, model results indicated that the Archean data reflect low primary productivity (~100-fold lower than during the Phanerozoic) and enhanced preservation under anoxic conditions, with the principal control on organic carbon content provided by dilution with inorganic sediment. Thus, the high organic carbon content which is typically attributed to high productivity instead reflects slow accumulation, high preservation, and minimal inorganic dilution—reconciling the geological evidence with a slow carbon cycle cadence during Archean time.

《地球科学》(ISSN 1000-2383;CN42-1874/P) (原刊名《地球科学——中国地质大学学报》ISSN 1000-2383;CN42-1233/P)，创刊于1957年，是由教育部主管、中国地质大学主办的综合性地学学术理论期刊，月刊，2015年改名为《地球科学》,她以反映中国地质大学教学与科研最新的、高水平的基础地质、应用地质、资源与环境地质及地学工程技术研究成果为主要任务。

Sedimentological, textural, and microscale analyses of the Mount McRae Shale revealed a complex postdepositional history, previously unrecognized in bulk geochemical studies. We found that metal enrichments in the shale do not reside with depositional organic carbon, as previously proposed by Anbar et al ., but with late-stage pyrite, compromising claims for a “whiff” of oxygen ~50 million years before the Great Oxygenation Event.

New microscale observations show chemical signals for transient oxygen at 2.5 billion years ago formed after deposition.