Lost mountains in Antarctica may have driven early life
Summary and headline written by AI from the source article. How we work
Bei Chen of the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences and Ian H. Campbell of the Australian National University studied mineral grains to understand ancient mountains hidden beneath the Antarctic ice.
The researchers examined 1,712 zircon grains from marine sediments around Antarctica, dating them to between 650 and 450 million years ago, a period when the supercontinent Gondwana existed.
These zircons revealed the presence of mountains comparable in scale to the Himalayas, which the scientists termed the “Gondwanan Supermountains.” The erosion of these mountains released nutrients into the ocean, potentially encouraging the growth of photosynthetic organisms and increasing oxygen production. The scientists also propose that sediment from the eroding mountains helped bury organic carbon, preventing it from consuming oxygen and allowing atmospheric oxygen levels to rise.
Chen and Campbell suggest a connection between this mountain-building period and a significant increase in the evolution of complex life on Earth, stating it’s unlikely the timing is coincidental.
