Active methanogenesis during the melting of Marinoan snowball Earth.

Geological evidence indicates that the deglaciation of Marinoan snowball Earth ice age (~635 Myr ago) was associated with intense continental weathering, recovery of primary productivity, transient marine euxinia, and potentially extensive CH4 emission. It is proposed that the deglacial CH4 emissions may have provided positive feedbacks for ice melting and global warming. However, the origin of CH4 remains unclear. Here we report Ni isotopes (δ60Ni) and Yttrium-rare earth element (YREE) compositions of syndepositional pyrites from the upper most Nantuo Formation (equivalent deposits of the Marinoan glaciation), South China. The Nantuo pyrite displays anti-correlations between Ni concentration and δ60Ni, and between Ni concentration and Sm/Yb ratio, suggesting mixing between Ni in seawater and Ni from methanogens. Our study indicates active methanogenesis during the termination of Marinoan snowball Earth. This suggests that methanogenesis was fueled by methyl sulfides produced in sulfidic seawater during the deglacial recovery of marine primary productivity.

Citation

Zhouqiao Zhao, Bing Shen, Jian-Ming Zhu, Xianguo Lang, Guangliang Wu, Decan Tan, Haoxiang Pei, Tianzheng Huang, Meng Ning, Haoran Ma. Active methanogenesis during the melting of Marinoan snowball Earth. Nature communications. 2021 Feb 11;12(1):955

PMID: 33574253

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