Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPter 7
The Early History of Atmospheric Oxygen:
Geological Evidence
hen I was PhD student, and just becoming interested in the history
of atmospheric oxygen, it seemed that unraveling this history was the
place for dreamers and hobbyists, not the place for serious scientists to
waste their time. It seemed that anyone with a wacky idea could migrate
into the field, deliver the idea, and then quickly retreat. The constraints
were few, so even crazy ideas could find an ear.
This picture, of course, is an exaggeration. There were a few very seri-
ous scientists desperate to reveal the history of atmospheric oxygen on
ancient Earth, and one of them was Dick Holland of Harvard Univer-
sity.
1
I met Dick's work almost immediately after starting my PhD stud-
ies and was humbled by his ability to find his way through complex
data and complex problems, and to extract the simple truths (my PhD
advisor Bob Berner, whom we meet more closely in
chapter 11
, shares
the same skill). This requires a sense for pattern recognition and lateral
reasoning that most of us simply don't possess. But Dick had it in
spades. Dick would finish a talk and you would say: “Yes, of course,
why didn't I think of that?” But the point is that you didn't, and neither
did anyone else.
Dick pursued many research interests during his long career, but try-
ing to understand the history of atmospheric oxygen was a constant
through it all. Already in 1962, Dick wrote a remarkable paper entitled,
