Oxidants on Small Icy Bodies and Snowball Earth

Details Oxidants on Small Icy Bodies and Snowball Earth Oxidants on Small Icy Bodies and Snowball Earth

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufm.p32b..02y&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #P32B-02

Mathematics

Logic

0317 Chemical Kinetic And Photochemical Properties, 0325 Evolution Of The Atmosphere (1610, 8125), 0330 Geochemical Cycles (1030), 1060 Planetary Geochemistry (5405, 5410, 5704, 5709, 6005, 6008), 6223 Callisto

Scientific paper

Oxidants such as O2, O3, H2O2 and SO4 are known to be on the surface of icy bodies in the outer solar system and they may be an important source of energy for the subterranean biosphere. During Proterozoic time, Earth experienced "Snowball Earth" events, associated with the nearly complete shutdown of the hydrological cycle. During such long and severe glacial intervals, a weak hydrological cycle coupled with photochemical reactions involving water vapor would give rise to the sustained production of hydrogen peroxide. The photochemical production of hydrogen peroxide has been proposed previously as the primary mechanism for oxidizing the surface of Mars. During a Snowball, hydrogen peroxide could be stored in the ice; it would then be released directly into the ocean and the atmosphere upon melting and could mediate global oxidation events in the aftermath of the Snowball, such as that found in the geological record. There are implications for the evolution of oxygen-mediating and utilizing enzymes and thereby paved the way for the eventual appearance of oxygenic photosynthesis.

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