Friday 3 December 2021

Mountain Building Needs Plankton!

Mountain Building Needs Plankton! 

THIS ARTICLE based on THIS PAPER tells us that without organic carbon in the form of graphite, mountain building would not have taken place. Organic carbon became possible after the Great Oxidation Event at c. 2.3 Ga and there are few mountain building episodes before this. The graphite provided the necessary lubrication.

Timeline for the formation of mountains on Earth. J Johnston/University of Aberdeen, Author provided


The academic paper goes through many mountain building episodes and in each of them finds carbonaceous sediments involved in all of them.

The article is well worth reading and the academic paper gives a great deal of information - interesting stuff!

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