New constraints on ancient atmospheric gas concentrations from fluid inclusions in surface materials
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Authors
Pettitt, Elizabeth A.
Issue Date
2020-05
Type
Electronic thesis
Thesis
Thesis
Language
ENG
Keywords
Geology
Alternative Title
Abstract
This has huge implications for ancient atmospheric reconstructions; if modern soil carbonate nodules record current atmospheric conditions then ancient soil carbonate nodules have the potential to record ancient atmospheric compositions assuming they have not been heavily buried or altered. With that in mind, the final chapter of this dissertation delves into constraining ancient atmospheric pO2 during the Carboniferous using soil carbonate-hosted fluid inclusions collected in Pennsylvania. Here we constrain the pO2 during the Carboniferous to be around 26% which aligns with model predictions. The overarching theme of this work is the betterment of proxy methods in reconstructing ancient atmospheric conditions throughout Earth history using various low temperature geologic materials.
Description
May 2020
School of Science
School of Science
Full Citation
Publisher
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY