Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 337, Issue 6092, Pages 331-334Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1220224
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Funding
- Texaco Postdoctoral Fellowship in Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology
- Sir Charles Clore Prize for Outstanding Appointment in the Experimental Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science
- NSF [EAR-0819931]
- Agouron Institute
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering
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The sulfur cycle influences the respiration of sedimentary organic matter, the oxidation state of the atmosphere and oceans, and the composition of seawater. However, the factors governing the major sulfur fluxes between seawater and sedimentary reservoirs remain incompletely understood. Using macrostratigraphic data, we quantified sulfate evaporite burial fluxes through Phanerozoic time. Approximately half of the modern riverine sulfate flux comes from weathering of recently deposited evaporites. Rates of sulfate burial are unsteady and linked to changes in the area of marine environments suitable for evaporite formation and preservation. By contrast, rates of pyrite burial and weathering are higher, less variable, and largely balanced, highlighting a greater role of the sulfur cycle in regulating atmospheric oxygen.
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