Ages of ice samples found on the Earth cover a span approaching 200,000 years. Gas bubbles trapped in that ice can be used to learn about the composition of Earth's atmosphere at the time they were trapped in the ice. But how can we tell what the Earth's atmosphere was like before that?
Recently, USGS scientists have used a gas QMS to determine the oxygen level of ancient samples of Earth's atmosphere from a most unlikely place - amber. The fossilized resin of conifer trees, amber is interesting to scientists as a medium that traps insects, small animals, and plants, preserving them through geologic time for future study.
The recent extraction by scientists, of ancient DNA from organisms entombed in amber much like in the science-fiction novel and movie, Jurassic Park is an example of why scientists are intensely interested in amber. Minute bubbles of ancient air trapped by successive flows of tree resin during the life of the tree are preserved in the amber.
Analyses of the gases in these bubbles show that the Earth's atmosphere, 67 million years ago, contained nearly 35 percent oxygen compared to present levels of 21 percent. Results are based upon more than 300 analyses by USGS scientists of Cretaceous, Tertiary, and recent-age amber from 16 world sites.* The oldest amber in this study is about 130 million years old.
Whoa.
I wonder how well this will stand up.
They SOOOOO need to find samples from the Jurassic.
If this finding can be verified there are implications for the conflagrations following the asteroid strike. I'm sure that current models simulating the impact did not have such a fire enhancing O2 atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteIf there were atmospheric O2 levels around 35% then should larger than expected insect fossils be found - ala Carboniferous. Excepting that there would be a greater number of insect predators in the Mesozoic, such high oxygen concentrations should have led to larger insects.
ReplyDeleteOne wonders if the impact were followed by a significant drop in O2 levels?
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