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The Nice Oxygenation Occasion, which occurred round 2.four billion years in the past, was one of many largest transformations of our planet. Earlier than it, there was virtually no oxygen within the environment; after, there was.
Conventionally, the rise of oxygen is seen as life triumphantly terraforming a passive planet. However we’re studying now that Earth was an lively participant, and it took two extra massive lifts of oxygen over the succeeding 2 billion years earlier than it reached breathable ranges. So which was extra chargeable for oxygen’s rise on Earth: the evolution of life or the evolution of the planet? Nature or nurture? And does the identical reply apply to all the rises of oxygen in Earth’s previous?
It’s a query past curiosity about our previous, because it additionally impacts how we would interpret indicators of life on exoplanets.
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