In order to understand quantitatively the evolution of the Earth we have to deal with two types of records, direct and indirect (proxies). The isotopic composition of past seawater may be about the best proxy reflecting the evolution of our planet. This is because, due to its mixing rate of ∼1,000 years, seawater is well mixed on million-year timescales and registers a globally averaged signal. The latter, however, is true only for chemical species with seawater residence times in excess of the mixing rate of the oceans. This contribution discusses the basic structures of the isotopic seawater curves for carbon on billion to million years of geologic history, a time scale well beyond the residence time of inorganic carbon in seawater that is about 2–4 thousand years (Ka).
The recording media
Apart from inclusions of possible modified seawater in Phanerozoic salts, no samples of ancient seawater are available for direct isotope studies. We have to rely therefore on biominerals and...
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Veizer, J. (2009). Carbon Isotope Variations Over Geologic Time. In: Gornitz, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4411-3_31
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