Organosulfur Aerosols Likely Carried Sulfur MIF Signatures in the Early Earth’s Atmosphere
Name
Geochem Geophys Geosyst - 2023 - Oduro - Organosulfur Aerosols Likely Carried Sulfur MIF Signatures in the Early Earth s.pdf
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Published version
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2.16 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Oduro, Harry
Ono, Shuhei
Alrasheed, Faisal
Eldridge, Daniel L
Date Issued
October 16, 2023
Journal
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Citation
Oduro, H., Ono, S., Alrasheed, F., & Eldridge, D. L. (2023). Organosulfur aerosols likely carried sulfur MIF signatures in the early Earth’s atmosphere. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 24, e2022GC010777.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Signatures of mass-independent fractionation (MIF) of sulfur in Archean sulfide and sulfate minerals are widely thought to record an anoxic early Earth’s atmosphere. While experiments of ultraviolet irradiation of SO2 produce significant sulfur mass-independent fractionation (S-MIF) in reaction products (elemental sulfur and residual sulfur dioxide), they have not been able to reproduce the isotope patterns, in particular Δ36S/Δ33S ratios, observed in the geologic rock record. Studies that focused on organic sulfur gases and hazes in Archean did not report organosulfur aerosol photoproducts as major contributors to Archean S-MIF chemistry. Here we show, for the first time, that photochemical reactions of SO2 in the presence of gaseous hydrocarbons (CH4, C2H2, and C2H4) produce haze-like organosulfur aerosols bearing S-MIF with variable Δ36S/Δ33S ratios. The isotope trends for the organosulfur photoproducts produced in our experiments suggest that in addition to elemental sulfur, organosulfur compounds—in particular methanesulfonic acid—are a key component of S-MIF signals from the atmosphere to the ocean and sediments with possible links to Archean atmosphere warmed by a methane greenhouse.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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DOI of Published Version
10.1029/2022gc010777
