What is Siderian?
The '''Siderian''' is the first [[geology|geological]] [[Period (geology)|period]] in the [[Palaeoproterozoic]] that began 2.5 [[billion]] years ago, and ended at 2.3 billion years ago. Before it was the [[Neoarchaean]] It is followed by the [[Rhyacian]]. [[Banded iron formation]]s (BIFs) became very abundant early this period. BIFs were formed as anaerobic [[algae]] produced waste [[oxygen]] that combined with [[iron]], forming [[magnetite]] (Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>, an [[iron oxide]]). This process cleared iron from the oceans, presumably turning greenish seas clear. Eventually, without an oxygen sink in the oceans, the process created the oxygen-rich [[Earth's atmosphere|atmosphere]] of today. This event is known as the [[oxygen catastrophe]], which according to some geologists triggered the [[Huronian glaciation]].<ref>Paleoclimates: The First Two Billion Years - James F. Kasting & Shuehi Ono, 2006 https://www.jstor.org/stable/20209693</ref> The Huronian glaciation took place in the Siderian between 2400 Mya and 2300 Mya.<ref>The Palaeoproterozoic Snowball Earth: A climate disaster triggered by the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis - Kopp et. al http://www.pnas.org/content/102/32/11131.full.pdf+html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718140151/http://www.pnas.org/content/102/32/11131.full.pdf+html |date=2013-07-18 }}</ref> == References == {{Reflist}} {{Geologic history}} {{science-stub}} [[Category:Palaeoproterozoic]]