The evolution of the prebiotic atmosphere

James F. Kasting

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

High CO2 levels are required to warm the primitive earth in the face of decreased solar luminosity. The atmosphere should have had an effective stratospheric cold trap, which would have limited the abiotic production rate of oxygen to relatively low values. Photostimulated oxidation of ferrous iron in the oceans should have been the dominant source of atmospheric H2. Rainout of H2O2 would have kept the atmospheric H2 content high and the O2 content low, even if other sources of H2 were small.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)75-82
Number of pages8
JournalOrigins of Life
Volume14
Issue number1-4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1984

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • General Environmental Science
  • Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The evolution of the prebiotic atmosphere'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this