According to scientists, Earth’s oxygen could run out. This is according to a study conducted by Kazumi Ozaki and Christopher T. Reinhard, published in Nature Geoscience, where they explain that oxygen levels above 1% of the current level will persist for approximately 1.080 ± 0.140 billion years. To reach this conclusion, simulations were carried out using models that integrate biochemical processes, carbon cycles, and climate mechanisms, taking into account increasing solar exposure, rock weathering, and CO2 depletion. It is expected that as the sun becomes brighter, the chemical balance of the Earth’s atmosphere will change, affecting processes such as photosynthesis.
The atmosphere is expected to reach a state similar to that of the early Earth, before the Great Oxidation Event. The scenario is not expected to end life immediately, but it would mean the collapse of a more complex biosphere. It is believed that the movement of tectonic plates that generate volcanic activity will release reducing gases that require oxygen in their chemical reactions. This drop in oxygen would transform ecosystems, could cause the oceans to evaporate, accumulating methane and causing a fog similar to the environment in Titanic, and the blue sky would disappear.
The Earth could stop breathing
According to recent studies, the Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere is only a temporary phase. This is explained in a study conducted by Kazumi Ozaki and Christopher T. Reinhard, published in Nature Geoscience, which explains that oxygen levels above 1% of the current level will persist for approximately 1.080 ± 0.140 billion years. How did they reach this conclusion? The study carried out simulations based on models that integrate biogeochemical processes, carbon cycles, and climate mechanisms, taking into account aspects such as increasing solar exposure, rock weathering, and CO2 depletion.
The chemical balance of the atmosphere will change as the sun becomes brighter, reducing oxygen production and hindering processes such as photosynthesis. This will not only be due to the sun’s action, but the atmosphere is also expected to reach a state similar to that which existed on the early Earth before the Great Oxidation Event. This point would be reached due to tectonic and volcanic activity, which releases reducing gases that require oxygen in their chemical reactions. According to predictions, this process will not depend on the loss of surface water, but rather oxygen depletion will precede water depletion.
Consequences of this apocalyptic scenario
The consequences of this scenario could be devastating. Deoxygenation would directly affect ecosystems, especially those that depend on high oxygen concentrations, such as multicellular organisms (plants, animals, and humans). In this scenario, anaerobic microbes would occupy these ecological niches, as they are the only ones capable of tolerating oxygen-poor and methane-rich environments. On the other hand, marine creatures would be left without a habitat, as the oceans could evaporate. Methane would accumulate in the atmosphere, as it did on primitive Earth, causing an orange haze, similar to the environment on Titan, and causing the blue sky to disappear.
These consequences would not occur abruptly and immediately, but would be the result of the collapse of a more complex biosphere. However, The study presents great uncertainties: the drop in oxygen could be brought forward or delayed depending on geological flows, volcanic activity, or changes in the carbon balance. The ability of biota to adapt will also be a determining factor, as will human actions such as emissions into the atmosphere.