A study finds that the manganese-containing mineral rhodochrosite can be abiotically photooxidized by ultraviolet light under anoxic conditions that could have been present in the Archean Eon; the results offer insight into the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis and suggest that the use of manganese mineral oxidation, previously supposed to require biological catalysts or molecular oxygen, as a proxy for the emergence of oxygenic photosynthetic organisms on Earth may be unproductive.
Article #20-02175: "Anoxic photogeochemical oxidation of manganese carbonate yields manganese oxide," by Winnie Liu et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Paul Falkowski, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; e-mail: falko@marine.rutgers.edu
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences