Behaviors of trace elements in Neoarchean and Paleoproterozoic paleosols: Implications for atmospheric oxygen evolution and continental oxidative weathering

Abstract

The behaviors of redox-sensitive and/or bio-essential trace elements in Neoarchean and Paleoproterozoic paleosols (ancient weathering profiles) were investigated to better understand atmospheric oxygen evolution. The loss or retention of individual trace elements in the paleosols can show how continental oxidative weathering, and thus atmospheric oxygen evolution, took place against age mainly due to their various redox potentials. The V, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn and Mo concentrations of two Paleoproterozoic paleosols were measured by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and mass spectrometry, and those, as well as Co, W and U concentrations, of nine Neoarchean and Paleoproterozoic paleosols were obtained from the literature. The trace element behaviors were constrained by their degrees of loss or retention in the paleosols. We applied two methods to the estimation: (i) retention fraction of element M (a mass ratio of element M of paleosol to parent rock using immobile elements such as Ti) and (ii) element-element (in particular, Si-element) correlations at different profile depths of a paleosol.There are two distinct groups in trace element behavior in the Neoarchean and Paleoproterozoic paleosols: Co, Ni, Zn and W were lost from weathering profiles until the early Paleoproterozoic but retained in the middle and late Paleoproterozoic, while V, Cr, Cu, Mo and U were retained in the profiles until the early Paleoproterozoic or slightly later but lost from the profiles in the middle and late Paleoproterozoic. More precisely, the timings of such loss and retention were different between trace elements during the Paleoproterozoic. The characteristics of these changes from retention to loss or from loss to retention indicate that the changes occurred and lasted throughout the Paleoproterozoic. The trace element behaviors, accordingly, suggest that continental weathering became oxidative progressively with age during almost the whole Paleoproterozoic, and thus, atmospheric oxygen increased similarly with age in the same time period but not suddenly in a relatively short term. The loss and retention of the trace elements may infer how they were released from the continent to the ocean against age in the Neoarchean and Paleoproterozoic.