The Archean eon represents one-third of our planet’s history, but oxygen levels were nearly nonexistent during this time. Twenty-one percent of the atmosphere consists of this life-giving element, but how did the Earth’s atmosphere become oxygenated? Adam Charles Simon, an Arthur F. Thurnau professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan, and a team of researchers dive into the possibility that at least some of the Earth’s early oxygen came from a tectonic source via the movement and destruction of the Earth’s crust.
