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Episode 4.2 · 30 min

How Earth Got Oxygen

Why oxygen accumulated long after oxygen-producing photosynthesis began, and how the Great Oxidation Event transformed the atmosphere, oceans, climate, and life.

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Visual credits

17 sources

Visual sources include third-party material incorporated into custom animations. License information is reproduced from source records; an unrecorded license does not mean a work is public domain.

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

  1. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03393-7 ↗
  2. https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/20034 ↗
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  8. https://faculty.washington.edu/dcatling/Catling2012_Ch13_TreatiseGeochem_Revised_wFigs.pdf ↗
  9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2018.09.017 ↗
  10. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16493-1 ↗
  11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40770997/ ↗
  12. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825217302258 ↗
  13. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8724090/ ↗
  14. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5577183/ ↗
  15. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301926824001360 ↗
  16. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11295007/ ↗
  17. https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-iron-ore.pdf ↗
  18. https://www.ga.gov.au/aimr2025/world-rankings ↗
  19. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1183582/ ↗
  20. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7043912/ ↗
  21. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adp1853 ↗
  22. https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/33527 ↗
  23. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8728182/ ↗
  24. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5148108/ ↗
  25. https://www.geochemicalperspectivesletters.org/article2207/ ↗
  26. https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/22/483/2026/ ↗
  27. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12799107/ ↗
  28. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64194-4 ↗
  29. https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/7eq76-7tm51 ↗
  30. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Banded_Iron_Formation_of_Hamersley_Range_DSCN2938.jpg ↗
  31. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jaspilite_banded_iron_formation_(BIF)_(Hamersely_Group,_Neoarchean_to_Paleoproterozoic,_~2.47-2.55_Ga;_Hamersley_Range,_Western_Australia)_(15036345446).jpg ↗
  32. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jaspilite_banded_iron_formation,_Soudan_Underground_State_Park.jpg ↗
  33. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clast-rich_mixtite_(Coleman_Member,_Gowganda_Formation,_Paleoproterozoic,_~2.3_Ga;_Percival_Lake_roadcut,_Ontario,_Canada)_25_(32783990477).jpg ↗
  34. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dropstones_in_argillite_(Coleman_Member,_Gowganda_Formation,_Paleoproterozoic,_~2.3_Ga;_Straight_Lake_West_roadcut,_north_of_Temagami,_Ontario,_Canada)_2_(40849289653).jpg ↗
  35. https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/mining-for-iron-at-mount-whaleback-147416/ ↗
  36. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Karijini_National_Park,_Pilbara_Region,_Western_Australia,_Kalmina_Gorge_01.jpg ↗
  37. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40354523/ ↗
  38. https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/items/fc50996a-7df8-425a-8a16-296a7b665d78 ↗
  39. https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/27430/Anbar_2023_SA_Technical_comment_CC.pdf?sequence=1 ↗
  40. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11486082/ ↗
  41. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07858 ↗
  42. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0492-6 ↗
  43. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23286-7 ↗
  44. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825221001136 ↗
  45. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01560-9 ↗
  46. https://www.usgs.gov/publications/extraterrestrial-demise-banded-iron-formations-185-billion-years-ago ↗
  47. https://www.wa.gov.au/government/announcements/statistics-digest-reveals-western-australias-strong-resources-sector-amid-market-challenges ↗
  48. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faulted_clast_in_tillite_(Coleman_Member,_Gowganda_Formation,_Paleoproterozoic,_~2.3_Ga;_Straight_Lake_West_roadcut,_north_of_Temagami,_Ontario,_Canada)_3_(47026270824).jpg ↗
  49. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2zXLswH02s ↗
  50. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRoiK8hOWX4 ↗
  51. https://zenodo.org/records/3665619/files/Gumsley%20et%20al.%20%282017%29%20-%20Timing%20and%20tempo%20of%20the%20Great%20Oxidation%20Event.pdf ↗
  52. https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/10137626/1/Kurucz%20et%20al%202021%20accepted.pdf ↗
  53. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825224003611 ↗
  54. https://hal.science/hal-05412336v1/file/ramsayEtAl2025.pdf ↗
  55. https://bpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.bristol.ac.uk/dist/3/589/files/2025/04/Davin_et_al_2025.pdf ↗
  56. https://pages.uoregon.edu/slouca/LoucaLab/SECTION_Publications/MODULE_Publications/Files/Husain2026Molecular.pdf ↗
  57. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4572369/ ↗
  58. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41385-018-0010-y ↗
  59. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-earth-031621-071250 ↗
  60. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2519431122 ↗
  61. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.1900325116 ↗
  62. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6717284/ ↗
  63. https://conf.goldschmidt.info/goldschmidt/2024/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/22191 ↗
  64. https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.11675 ↗
  65. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20240009601/downloads/2023GISSPubsfinal_complete.pdf?attachment=true ↗
  66. https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/1201/2023/ ↗
  67. https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/9980/Claire_2016_Astrobiol_PaleOrangeDot_CC.pdf?sequence=1 ↗
  68. https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo1425 ↗
  69. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax1420 ↗
  70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2018.04.018 ↗
  71. https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/22/483/2026/cp-22-483-2026.html ↗
  72. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2aDr1TJ8D4 ↗
  73. https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrsp-2007-3 ↗

Music

  • Meditation From The Star Orion
    OctahedronMusic · Envato Elements

How this film was made

Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.

Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.

More about the creator and production →