Tracing the oxygen isotope composition of the upper Earth's atmosphere using cosmic spherules

Molten I-type cosmic spherules formed by heating, oxidation and melting of extraterrestrial Fe,Ni metal alloys. The entire oxygen in these spherules sources from the atmosphere. Therefore, I-type cosmic spherules are suitable tracers for the isotopic composition of the upper atmosphere at altitudes...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pack, Andreas, Höweling, Andres, Hezel, Dominik C., Stefanak, Maren T., Beck, Anne-Katrin, Peters, Stefan T. M., Sengupta, Sukanya, Herwartz, Daniel, Folco, Luigi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Article
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5461487/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28569769
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15702
Descripción
Sumario:Molten I-type cosmic spherules formed by heating, oxidation and melting of extraterrestrial Fe,Ni metal alloys. The entire oxygen in these spherules sources from the atmosphere. Therefore, I-type cosmic spherules are suitable tracers for the isotopic composition of the upper atmosphere at altitudes between 80 and 115 km. Here we present data on I-type cosmic spherules collected in Antarctica. Their composition is compared with the composition of tropospheric O(2). Our data suggest that the Earth's atmospheric O(2) is isotopically homogenous up to the thermosphere. This makes fossil I-type micrometeorites ideal proxies for ancient atmospheric CO(2) levels.

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