Reexamination of 2.5-Ga whiff' of oxygen interval points to anoxic ocean before GOE

Many lines of inorganic geochemical evidence suggest transient whiffs of environmental oxygenation before the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). Slotznick et al. assert that analyses of paleoredox proxies in the Mount McRae Shale, Western Australia, were misinterpreted and hence that environmental O-2 levels were persistently negligible before the GOE. We find these arguments logically flawed and factually incomplete.

Automated summary

Slotznick et al. argue that the analysis of paleoredox proxies in the Mount McRae Shale, Western Australia, was misunderstood, suggesting that environmental oxygen levels were consistently negligible before the GOE. However, we find these arguments to be logically flawed and factually incomplete.