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Book Review: Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History

  • Katherine Byerly
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 3. April 2017
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American Mineralogist
Aus der Zeitschrift American Mineralogist Band 102 Heft 4

Reviewed Publication:

Book Review: Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History. ( 2015 ) By Canfield Donald E.. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9781400849888, 216 pp. Paperback $17.95.

A glance at the table of contents of Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History, by Donald Canfield (University of Southern Denmark) suggests that his book will be an up-to-date summary of almost the entire subject matter of oxygen levels through time. This is a heroic undertaking even for an Earth history and geochemistry specialist, and the book does not disappoint. A goal of the book is to bridge the gap between experts in their field and a more general readership interested in learning about Earth’s O2 history. The effort is as important as it is difficult, and the author achieves this with both personality and humanity.

Canfield begins with an interdisciplinary summary of present-day Earth processes and of the reasons the Earth is the premier planet for life. This chapter serves as both an introduction and review of topics such as the importance of water, sun-created thermal balance, and the carbon cycle. This chapter provides the most relatable and important background information that a non-specialist, who is interested in the evolution of the atmosphere, should know about our planet for these processes are the very ingredients of life itself.

Canfield is conservative where discussing oxygen content in the first billion years, describing it as “whiffs of oxygen” before the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). He cites that any free oxygen would quickly react with iron, until the point was reached that free oxygen began to overcome the iron “oxygen sinks,” launching into the single most important shift in Earth history—the GOE. It is at this point that Canfield addresses one of the “gaps” in research, starting with our inability to explain the approximately 900 million year gap from the debut of photosynthetic organisms to actual worldwide oxygenation.

Canfield uses the gap preceding worldwide oxygenation to initiate discussion of different hypotheses. In the case of the GOE oxygen gap, Canfield ultimately champions the idea that ocean floor iron kept ocean anoxia high during this time, but also touches on other hypotheses to show that our evidence is limited with new discoveries to be made.

The approach taken to explain conclusions and models in his sources illustrates a general strength of the book: Canfield explains the derivation of the conclusions and then follows them up with a discussion of their implications. His discussion of setting up the models, may lack some technical detail, but this is to help readers with less rigorous scientific backgrounds grasp the material. Science needs more researchers capable of breaking down complex scientific discoveries in an accessible, complete, and engrossing narrative. Canfield brings out his own personality and sheer enjoyment in the information being presented, all while providing true insight into fundamentals of our natural world.

Published Online: 2017-4-3
Published in Print: 2017-4-1

© 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Review: Minerals in the Human Body
  2. Mineral precipitation and dissolution in the kidney
  3. Special Collection: Nanominerals and Mineral Nanoparticles
  4. Luogufengite: A new nano-mineral of Fe2O3 polymorph with giant coercive field
  5. Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
  6. Column anion arrangements in chemically zoned ternary chlorapatite and fluorapatite from Kurokura, Japan
  7. Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
  8. Magmatic graphite inclusions in Mn-Fe-rich fluorapatite of perphosphorus granites (the Belvís pluton, Variscan Iberian Belt)
  9. Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
  10. Barometric constraints based on apatite inclusions in garnet
  11. Special collection: Olivine
  12. A comparison of olivine-melt thermometers based on DMg and DNi: The effects of melt composition, temperature, and pressure with applications to MORBs and hydrous arc basalts
  13. Special collection: Dynamics of magmatic processes
  14. Water transfer during magma mixing events: Insights into crystal mush rejuvenation and melt extraction processes
  15. Special collection: Rates and depths of magma ascent on earth
  16. A new clinopyroxene-liquid barometer, and implications for magma storage pressures under Icelandic rift zones
  18. The S content of silicate melts at sulfide saturation: New experiments and a model incorporating the effects of sulfide composition
  20. Bond valence and bond energy
  22. Fluvial transport of impact evidence from cratonic interior to passive margin: Vredefort-derived shocked zircon on the Atlantic coast of South Africa
  24. Iron partitioning in natural lower-mantle minerals: Toward a chemically heterogeneous lower mantle
  26. Identifying biogenic silica: Mudrock micro-fabric explored through charge contrast imaging
  28. Compressibility and high-pressure structural behavior of Mg2Fe2O5
  30. Thermo-elastic behavior of grossular garnet at high pressures and temperatures
  32. Experimental constraints on the stability of baddeleyite and zircon in carbonate- and silicate-carbonate melts
  34. Polarized FTIR spectroscopic examination on hydroxylation in the minerals of the wolframite group, (Fe,Mn,Mg)[W,(Nb,Ta)][O,(OH)]4
  36. Tourmaline-rich features in the Heemskirk and Pieman Heads granites from western Tasmania, Australia: Characteristics, origins, and implications for tin mineralization
  38. Ca L2,3-edge near edge X-ray absorption fine structure of tricalcium aluminate, gypsum, and calcium (sulfo)aluminate hydrates
  40. Fluorwavellite, Al3(PO4)2(OH)2F·5H2O, the fluorine analog of wavellite
  42. New Mineral Names
  43. Book Review
  44. Book Review: Geochemical Rate Models: An Introduction to Geochemical Kinetics
  45. Book Review
  46. Book Review: Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History
  47. Erratum
  48. Calibration of Fe XANES for high-precision determination of Fe oxidation state in glasses: Comparison of new and existing results obtained at different synchrotron radiation sources
https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2017-666

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Review: Minerals in the Human Body
  2. Mineral precipitation and dissolution in the kidney
  3. Special Collection: Nanominerals and Mineral Nanoparticles
  4. Luogufengite: A new nano-mineral of Fe2O3 polymorph with giant coercive field
  5. Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
  6. Column anion arrangements in chemically zoned ternary chlorapatite and fluorapatite from Kurokura, Japan
  7. Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
  8. Magmatic graphite inclusions in Mn-Fe-rich fluorapatite of perphosphorus granites (the Belvís pluton, Variscan Iberian Belt)
  9. Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
  10. Barometric constraints based on apatite inclusions in garnet
  11. Special collection: Olivine
  12. A comparison of olivine-melt thermometers based on DMg and DNi: The effects of melt composition, temperature, and pressure with applications to MORBs and hydrous arc basalts
  13. Special collection: Dynamics of magmatic processes
  14. Water transfer during magma mixing events: Insights into crystal mush rejuvenation and melt extraction processes
  15. Special collection: Rates and depths of magma ascent on earth
  16. A new clinopyroxene-liquid barometer, and implications for magma storage pressures under Icelandic rift zones
  18. The S content of silicate melts at sulfide saturation: New experiments and a model incorporating the effects of sulfide composition
  20. Bond valence and bond energy
  22. Fluvial transport of impact evidence from cratonic interior to passive margin: Vredefort-derived shocked zircon on the Atlantic coast of South Africa
  24. Iron partitioning in natural lower-mantle minerals: Toward a chemically heterogeneous lower mantle
  26. Identifying biogenic silica: Mudrock micro-fabric explored through charge contrast imaging
  28. Compressibility and high-pressure structural behavior of Mg2Fe2O5
  30. Thermo-elastic behavior of grossular garnet at high pressures and temperatures
  32. Experimental constraints on the stability of baddeleyite and zircon in carbonate- and silicate-carbonate melts
  34. Polarized FTIR spectroscopic examination on hydroxylation in the minerals of the wolframite group, (Fe,Mn,Mg)[W,(Nb,Ta)][O,(OH)]4
  36. Tourmaline-rich features in the Heemskirk and Pieman Heads granites from western Tasmania, Australia: Characteristics, origins, and implications for tin mineralization
  38. Ca L2,3-edge near edge X-ray absorption fine structure of tricalcium aluminate, gypsum, and calcium (sulfo)aluminate hydrates
  40. Fluorwavellite, Al3(PO4)2(OH)2F·5H2O, the fluorine analog of wavellite
  42. New Mineral Names
  43. Book Review
  44. Book Review: Geochemical Rate Models: An Introduction to Geochemical Kinetics
  45. Book Review
  46. Book Review: Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History
  47. Erratum
  48. Calibration of Fe XANES for high-precision determination of Fe oxidation state in glasses: Comparison of new and existing results obtained at different synchrotron radiation sources
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