Published in mSystems
The identification of environmental factors that influence the elemental composition of proteins has implications for understanding microbial evolution and biogeography. Millions of years of genome evolution may provide a route for protein sequences to attain incomplete equilibrium with their chemical environment. We developed new tests of this che...
Published in Frontiers in Earth Science
The Early Paleozoic tectonic evolution of the South China Block (SCB) remains controversial related to intracontinental orogenic and oceanic subduction processes. We present whole-rock major and trace elemental data, LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb age and Lu-Hf isotopic data for the Early Paleozoic igneous rocks including granodiorites from the Yuechengling...
An oxygen-rich atmosphere is essential for complex animals. The early Earth had an anoxic atmosphere, and understanding the rise and maintenance of high O2 levels is critical for investigating what drove our own evolution and for assessing the likely habitability of exoplanets. A growing number of techniques aim to reproduce changes in O2 levels ov...
Carbonate minerals contain stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen with different masses whose abundances and bond arrangement are governed by thermodynamics. The clumped isotopic value Δi is a measure of the temperature-dependent preference of heavy C and O isotopes to clump, or bond with or near each other, rather than with light isotopes in the car...
Published in American Mineralogist
Understanding past and present aqueous activity on Mars is critical to constraining martian aqueous geochemistry and habitability, and to searching for life on Mars. Assemblages of minerals observed at or near the martian surface include phyllosilicates, sulfates, iron oxides/hydroxides, and chlorides, all of which are indicative of a complex histo...
Published in Frontiers in Earth Science
Introduction: Carbon dioxide emissions from non-volcanic areas are undervalued in the carbon cycle. Methods: First estimates of diffuse CO2 flux from the Anninghe—Zemuhe fault (AZF), Southeastern Tibetan Plateau, China, which suggests this could equal 15% emissions from all volcanoes in China. Following the accumulation chamber method, CO2 flux was...
Published in Frontiers in Earth Science
The evolution patterns of the Neo-Tethys Himalayas have been a major topic of research, particularly in the Neo-Tethys Ocean. The geological field investigations were conducted in the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Sangxiu Formation in the Tsomei Longzi area of Tibet. A stratigraphic hierarchy of the Sangxiu Formation was established based on an an...
Published in Frontiers in Earth Science
Introduction: To provide constraints on the Triassic tectonic setting of Eastern Tianshan, an integrated study was conducted on the geochronological and geochemical data for granodiorites, monzogranites, and two-mica granites from the Yamansu area on the northern margin of the Central Tianshan, NW China. Geochronlogy Method and Results: Zircon U–Pb...
Published in Frontiers in Microbiology
In the Samail Ophiolite of Oman, the geological process of serpentinization produces reduced, hydrogen rich, hyperalkaline (pH > 11) fluids. These fluids are generated through water reacting with ultramafic rock from the upper mantle in the subsurface. On Earth’s continents, serpentinized fluids can be expressed at the surface where they can mix wi...
Published in Frontiers in Microbiology
Steep Cone Geyser is a unique geothermal feature in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), Wyoming, actively gushing silicon-rich fluids along outflow channels possessing living and actively silicifying microbial biomats. To assess the geomicrobial dynamics occurring temporally and spatially at Steep Cone, samples were collected at discrete locations alo...
