Evidence for low sulphate and anoxia in a mid-Proterozoic marine basin

Many independent lines of evidence document a large increase in the Earth's surface oxidation state 2,400 to 2,200 million years ago, and a second biospheric oxygenation 800 to 580 million years ago, just before large animals appear in the fossil record. Such a two-staged oxidation implies a unique ocean chemistry for much of the Proterozoic eon, which would have been neither completely anoxic and iron-rich as hypothesized for Archaean seas, nor fully oxic as supposed for most of the Phanerozoic eon. The redox chemistry of Proterozoic oceans has important implications for evolution, but empirical constraints on competing environmental models are scarce. Here we present an analysis of the iron chemistry of shales deposited in the marine Roper Basin, Australia, between about 1,500 and 1,400 million years ago, which record deep-water anoxia beneath oxidized surface water. The sulphur isotopic compositions of pyrites in the shales show strong variations along a palaeodepth gradient, indicating low sulphate concentrations in mid-Proterozoic oceans. Our data help to integrate a growing body of evidence favouring a long-lived intermediate state of the oceans, generated by the early Proterozoic oxygen revolution and terminated by the environmental transformation late in the Proterozoic eon.     

Tracing the stepwise oxygenation of the Proterozoic ocean

Biogeochemical signatures preserved in ancient sedimentary rocks provide clues to the nature and timing of the oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere. Geochemical data suggest that oxygenation proceeded in two broad steps near the beginning and end of the Proterozoic eon (2,500 to 542 million years ago). The oxidation state of the Proterozoic ocean between these two steps and the timing of deep-ocean oxygenation have important implications for the evolutionary course of life on Earth but remain poorly known. Here we present a new perspective on ocean oxygenation based on the authigenic accumulation of the redox-sensitive transition element molybdenum in sulphidic black shales. Accumulation of authigenic molybdenum from sea water is already seen in shales by 2,650 Myr ago; however, the small magnitudes of these enrichments reflect weak or transient sources of dissolved molybdenum before about 2,200 Myr ago, consistent with minimal oxidative weathering of the continents. Enrichments indicative of persistent and vigorous oxidative weathering appear in shales deposited at roughly 2,150 Myr ago, more than 200 million years after the initial rise in atmospheric oxygen. Subsequent expansion of sulphidic conditions after about 1,800 Myr ago (refs 8, 9) maintained a mid-Proterozoic molybdenum reservoir below 20 per cent of the modern inventory, which in turn may have acted as a nutrient feedback limiting the spatiotemporal distribution of euxinic (sulphidic) bottom waters and perhaps the evolutionary and ecological expansion of eukaryotic organisms. By 551 Myr ago, molybdenum contents reflect a greatly expanded oceanic reservoir due to oxygenation of the deep ocean and corresponding decrease in sulphidic conditions in the sediments and water column.     

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations before 2.2 billion years ago

The composition of the Earth's early atmosphere is a subject of continuing debate. In particular, it has been suggested that elevated concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide would have been necessary to maintain normal surface temperatures in the face of lower solar luminosity in early Earth history. Fossil weathering profiles, known as palaeosols, have provided semi-quantitative constraints on atmospheric oxygen partial pressure (pO2) before 2.2 Gyr ago. Here we use the same well studied palaeosols to constrain atmospheric pCO2 between 2.75 and 2.2 Gyr ago. The observation that iron lost from the tops of these profiles was reprecipitated lower down as iron silicate minerals, rather than as iron carbonate, indicates that atmospheric pCO2 must have been less than 10(-1.4) atm--about 100 times today's level of 360 p.p.m., and at least five times lower than that required in one-dimensional climate models to compensate for lower solar luminosity at 2.75 Gyr. Our results suggest that either the Earth's early climate was much more sensitive to increases in pCO2 than has been thought, or that one or more greenhouse gases other than CO2 contributed significantly to the atmosphere's radiative balance during the late Archaean and early Proterozoic eons.     

Eocene global warming events driven by ventilation of oceanic dissolved organic carbon

'Hyperthermals' are intervals of rapid, pronounced global warming known from six episodes within the Palaeocene and Eocene epochs (～65-34 million years (Myr) ago). The most extreme hyperthermal was the ～170 thousand year (kyr) interval of 5-7 °C global warming during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, 56?Myr ago). The PETM is widely attributed to massive release of greenhouse gases from buried sedimentary carbon reservoirs, and other, comparatively modest, hyperthermals have also been linked to the release of sedimentary carbon. Here we show, using new 2.4-Myr-long Eocene deep ocean records, that the comparatively modest hyperthermals are much more numerous than previously documented, paced by the eccentricity of Earth's orbit and have shorter durations (～40?kyr) and more rapid recovery phases than the PETM. These findings point to the operation of fundamentally different forcing and feedback mechanisms than for the PETM, involving redistribution of carbon among Earth's readily exchangeable surface reservoirs rather than carbon exhumation from, and subsequent burial back into, the sedimentary reservoir. Specifically, we interpret our records to indicate repeated, large-scale releases of dissolved organic carbon (at least 1,600 gigatonnes) from the ocean by ventilation (strengthened oxidation) of the ocean interior. The rapid recovery of the carbon cycle following each Eocene hyperthermal strongly suggests that carbon was re-sequestered by the ocean, rather than the much slower process of silicate rock weathering proposed for the PETM. Our findings suggest that these pronounced climate warming events were driven not by repeated releases of carbon from buried sedimentary sources, but, rather, by patterns of surficial carbon redistribution familiar from younger intervals of Earth history.     

Oxidation of the Ediacaran ocean

Oxygenation of the Earth's surface is increasingly thought to have occurred in two steps. The first step, which occurred approximately 2,300 million years (Myr) ago, involved a significant increase in atmospheric oxygen concentrations and oxygenation of the surface ocean. A further increase in atmospheric oxygen appears to have taken place during the late Neoproterozoic period ( approximately 800-542 Myr ago). This increase may have stimulated the evolution of macroscopic multicellular animals and the subsequent radiation of calcified invertebrates, and may have led to oxygenation of the deep ocean. However, the nature and timing of Neoproterozoic oxidation remain uncertain. Here we present high-resolution carbon isotope and sulphur isotope records from the Huqf Supergroup, Sultanate of Oman, that cover most of the Ediacaran period (approximately 635 to approximately 548 Myr ago). These records indicate that the ocean became increasingly oxygenated after the end of the Marinoan glaciation, and they allow us to identify three distinct stages of oxidation. When considered in the context of other records from this period, our data indicate that certain groups of eukaryotic organisms appeared and diversified during the second and third stages of oxygenation. The second stage corresponds with the Shuram excursion in the carbon isotope record and seems to have involved the oxidation of a large reservoir of organic carbon suspended in the deep ocean, indicating that this event may have had a key role in the evolution of eukaryotic organisms. Our data thus provide new insights into the oxygenation of the Ediacaran ocean and the stepwise restructuring of the carbon and sulphur cycles that occurred during this significant period of Earth's history.     

Subducted banded iron formations as a source of ultralow-velocity zones at the core-mantle boundary

Ultralow-velocity zones (ULVZs) are regions of the Earth's core-mantle boundary about 1-10 kilometres thick exhibiting seismic velocities that are lower than radial-Earth reference models by about 10-20 per cent for compressional waves and 10-30 per cent for shear waves. It is also thought that such regions have an increased density of about 0-20 per cent (ref. 1). A number of origins for ULVZs have been proposed, such as ponding of dense silicate melt, core-mantle reaction zones or underside sedimentation from the core. Here we suggest that ULVZs might instead be relics of banded iron formations subducted to the core-mantle boundary between 2.8 and 1.8 billion years ago. Consisting mainly of interbedded iron oxides and silica, such banded iron formations were deposited in the world's oceans during the late Archaean and early Proterozoic eras. We argue that these layers, as part of the ocean floor, would be recycled into the Earth's interior by subduction, sink to the bottom of the mantle and may explain all of the observed features of ULVZs.     

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 60 million years

Knowledge of the evolution of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations throughout the Earth's history is important for a reconstruction of the links between climate and radiative forcing of the Earth's surface temperatures. Although atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in the early Cenozoic era (about 60 Myr ago) are widely believed to have been higher than at present, there is disagreement regarding the exact carbon dioxide levels, the timing of the decline and the mechanisms that are most important for the control of CO2 concentrations over geological timescales. Here we use the boron-isotope ratios of ancient planktonic foraminifer shells to estimate the pH of surface-layer sea water throughout the past 60 million years, which can be used to reconstruct atmospheric CO2 concentrations. We estimate CO2 concentrations of more than 2,000 p.p.m. for the late Palaeocene and earliest Eocene periods (from about 60 to 52 Myr ago), and find an erratic decline between 55 and 40 Myr ago that may have been caused by reduced CO2 outgassing from ocean ridges, volcanoes and metamorphic belts and increased carbon burial. Since the early Miocene (about 24 Myr ago), atmospheric CO2 concentrations appear to have remained below 500 p.p.m. and were more stable than before, although transient intervals of CO2 reduction may have occurred during periods of rapid cooling approximately 15 and 3 Myr ago.     

The transition to a sulphidic ocean approximately 1.84 billion years ago

The Proterozoic aeon (2.5 to 0.54 billion years (Gyr) ago) marks the time between the largely anoxic world of the Archean (> 2.5 Gyr ago) and the dominantly oxic world of the Phanerozoic (< 0.54 Gyr ago). The course of ocean chemistry through the Proterozoic has traditionally been explained by progressive oxygenation of the deep ocean in response to an increase in atmospheric oxygen around 2.3 Gyr ago. This postulated rise in the oxygen content of the ocean is in turn thought to have led to the oxidation of dissolved iron, Fe(II), thus ending the deposition of banded iron formations (BIF) around 1.8 Gyr ago. An alternative interpretation suggests that the increasing atmospheric oxygen levels enhanced sulphide weathering on land and the flux of sulphate to the oceans. This increased rates of sulphate reduction, resulting in Fe(II) removal in the form of pyrite as the oceans became sulphidic. Here we investigate sediments from the approximately 1.8-Gyr-old Animikie group, Canada, which were deposited during the final stages of the main global period of BIF deposition. This allows us to evaluate the two competing hypotheses for the termination of BIF deposition. We use iron-sulphur-carbon (Fe-S-C) systematics to demonstrate continued ocean anoxia after the final global deposition of BIF and show that a transition to sulphidic bottom waters was ultimately responsible for the termination of BIF deposition. Sulphidic conditions may have persisted until a second major rise in oxygen between 0.8 to 0.58 Gyr ago, possibly reducing global rates of primary production and arresting the pace of algal evolution.     

Deposition of 1.88-billion-year-old iron formations as a consequence of rapid crustal growth

Iron formations are chemical sedimentary rocks comprising layers of iron-rich and silica-rich minerals whose deposition requires anoxic and iron-rich (ferruginous) sea water. Their demise after the rise in atmospheric oxygen by 2.32?billion years (Gyr) ago has been attributed to the removal of dissolved iron through progressive oxidation or sulphidation of the deep ocean. Therefore, a sudden return of voluminous iron formations nearly 500?million years later poses an apparent conundrum. Most late Palaeoproterozoic iron formations are about 1.88?Gyr old and occur in the Superior region of North America. Major iron formations are also preserved in Australia, but these were apparently deposited after the transition to a sulphidic ocean at 1.84?Gyr ago that should have terminated iron formation deposition, implying that they reflect local marine conditions. Here we date zircons in tuff layers to show that iron formations in the Frere Formation of Western Australia are about 1.88?Gyr old, indicating that the deposition of iron formations from two disparate cratons was coeval and probably reflects global ocean chemistry. The sudden reappearance of major iron formations at 1.88?Gyr ago--contemporaneous with peaks in global mafic-ultramafic magmatism, juvenile continental and oceanic crust formation, mantle depletion and volcanogenic massive sulphide formation--suggests deposition of iron formations as a consequence of major mantle activity and rapid crustal growth. Our findings support the idea that enhanced submarine volcanism and hydrothermal activity linked to a peak in mantle melting released large volumes of ferrous iron and other reductants that overwhelmed the sulphate and oxygen reservoirs of the ocean, decoupling atmospheric and seawater redox states, and causing the return of widespread ferruginous conditions. Iron formations formed on clastic-starved coastal shelves where dissolved iron upwelled and mixed with oxygenated surface water. The disappearance of iron formations after this event may reflect waning mafic-ultramafic magmatism and a diminished flux of hydrothermal iron relative to seawater oxidants.     

A palaeotemperature curve for the Precambrian oceans based on silicon isotopes in cherts

The terrestrial sediment record indicates that the Earth's climate varied drastically in the Precambrian era (before 550 million years ago), ranging from surface temperatures similar to or higher than today's to global glaciation events. The most continuous record of sea surface temperatures of that time has been derived from variations in oxygen isotope ratios of cherts (siliceous sediments), but the long-term cooling of the oceans inferred from those data has been questioned because the oxygen isotope signature could have been reset through the exchange with hydrothermal fluids after deposition of the sediments. Here we show that the silicon isotopic composition of cherts more than 550 million years old shows systematic variations with age that support the earlier conclusion of long-term ocean cooling and exclude post-depositional exchange as the main source of the isotopic variations. In agreement with other lines of evidence, a model of the silicon cycle in the Precambrian era shows that the observed silicon isotope variations imply seawater temperature changes from about 70 degrees C 3,500 million years ago to about 20 degrees C 800 million years ago.     

Aerobic respiration in the Archaean?

The Earth's atmosphere during the Archaean era (3,800-2,500 Myr ago) is generally thought to have been anoxic, with the partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen about 10(-12) times the present value. In the absence of aerobic consumption of oxygen produced by photosynthesis in the ocean, the major sink for this oxygen would have been oxidation of dissolved Fe(II). Atmospheric oxygen would also be removed by the oxidation of biogenic methane. But even very low estimates of global primary productivity, obtained from the amounts of organic carbon preserved in Archaean rocks, seem to require the sedimentation of an unrealistically large amount of iron and the oxidation of too much methane if global anoxia was to be maintained. I therefore suggest that aerobic respiration must have developed early in the Archaean to prevent a build-up of atmospheric oxygen before the Proterozoic. An atmosphere that contained a low (0.2-0.4%) but stable proportion of oxygen is required.     

Biomarker evidence for green and purple sulphur bacteria in a stratified Palaeoproterozoic sea

The disappearance of iron formations from the geological record approximately 1.8 billion years (Gyr) ago was the consequence of rising oxygen levels in the atmosphere starting 2.45-2.32 Gyr ago. It marks the end of a 2.5-Gyr period dominated by anoxic and iron-rich deep oceans. However, despite rising oxygen levels and a concomitant increase in marine sulphate concentration, related to enhanced sulphide oxidation during continental weathering, the chemistry of the oceans in the following mid-Proterozoic interval (approximately 1.8-0.8 Gyr ago) probably did not yet resemble our oxygen-rich modern oceans. Recent data indicate that marine oxygen and sulphate concentrations may have remained well below current levels during this period, with one model indicating that anoxic and sulphidic marine basins were widespread, and perhaps even globally distributed. Here we present hydrocarbon biomarkers (molecular fossils) from a 1.64-Gyr-old basin in northern Australia, revealing the ecological structure of mid-Proterozoic marine communities. The biomarkers signify a marine basin with anoxic, sulphidic, sulphate-poor and permanently stratified deep waters, hostile to eukaryotic algae. Phototrophic purple sulphur bacteria (Chromatiaceae) were detected in the geological record based on the new carotenoid biomarker okenane, and they seem to have co-existed with communities of green sulphur bacteria (Chlorobiaceae). Collectively, the biomarkers support mounting evidence for a long-lasting Proterozoic world in which oxygen levels remained well below modern levels.     

Evolution of the continental crust

The continental crust covers nearly a third of the Earth's surface. It is buoyant--being less dense than the crust under the surrounding oceans--and is compositionally evolved, dominating the Earth's budget for those elements that preferentially partition into silicate liquid during mantle melting. Models for the differentiation of the continental crust can provide insights into how and when it was formed, and can be used to show that the composition of the basaltic protolith to the continental crust is similar to that of the average lower crust. From the late Archaean to late Proterozoic eras (some 3-1 billion years ago), much of the continental crust appears to have been generated in pulses of relatively rapid growth. Reconciling the sedimentary and igneous records for crustal evolution indicates that it may take up to one billion years for new crust to dominate the sedimentary record. Combining models for the differentiation of the crust and the residence time of elements in the upper crust indicates that the average rate of crust formation is some 2-3 times higher than most previous estimates.     

Isotopic evidence for Mesoarchaean anoxia and changing atmospheric sulphur chemistry

The evolution of the Earth's atmosphere is marked by a transition from an early atmosphere with very low oxygen content to one with an oxygen content within a few per cent of the present atmospheric level. Placing time constraints on this transition is of interest because it identifies the time when oxidative weathering became efficient, when ocean chemistry was transformed by delivery of oxygen and sulphate, and when a large part of Earth's ecology changed from anaerobic to aerobic. The observation of non-mass-dependent sulphur isotope ratios in sedimentary rocks more than approximately 2.45 billion years (2.45 Gyr) old and the disappearance of this signal in younger sediments is taken as one of the strongest lines of evidence for the transition from an anoxic to an oxic atmosphere around 2.45 Gyr ago. Detailed examination of the sulphur isotope record before 2.45 Gyr ago also reveals early and late periods of large amplitude non-mass-dependent signals bracketing an intervening period when the signal was attenuated. Until recently, this record has been too sparse to allow interpretation, but collection of new data has prompted some workers to argue that the Mesoarchaean interval (3.2-2.8 Gyr ago) lacks a non-mass-dependent signal, and records the effects of earlier and possibly permanent oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere. Here we focus on the Mesoarchaean interval, and demonstrate preservation of a non-mass-dependent signal that differs from that of preceding and following periods in the Archaean. Our findings point to the persistence of an anoxic early atmosphere, and identify variability within the isotope record that suggests changes in pre-2.45-Gyr-ago atmospheric pathways for non-mass-dependent chemistry and in the ultraviolet transparency of an evolving early atmosphere.     

Rapid stepwise onset of Antarctic glaciation and deeper calcite compensation in the Pacific Ocean

The ocean depth at which the rate of calcium carbonate input from surface waters equals the rate of dissolution is termed the calcite compensation depth. At present, this depth is approximately 4,500 m, with some variation between and within ocean basins. The calcite compensation depth is linked to ocean acidity, which is in turn linked to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and hence global climate. Geological records of changes in the calcite compensation depth show a prominent deepening of more than 1 km near the Eocene/Oligocene boundary (approximately 34 million years ago) when significant permanent ice sheets first appeared on Antarctica, but the relationship between these two events is poorly understood. Here we present ocean sediment records of calcium carbonate content as well as carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions from the tropical Pacific Ocean that cover the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. We find that the deepening of the calcite compensation depth was more rapid than previously documented and occurred in two jumps of about 40,000 years each, synchronous with the stepwise onset of Antarctic ice-sheet growth. The glaciation was initiated, after climatic preconditioning, by an interval when the Earth's orbit of the Sun favoured cool summers. The changes in oxygen-isotope composition across the Eocene/Oligocene boundary are too large to be explained by Antarctic ice-sheet growth alone and must therefore also indicate contemporaneous global cooling and/or Northern Hemisphere glaciation.     

Stable isotopic evidence for methane seeps in Neoproterozoic postglacial cap carbonates

The Earth's most severe glaciations are thought to have occurred about 600 million years ago, in the late Neoproterozoic era. A puzzling feature of glacial deposits from this interval is that they are overlain by 1-5-m-thick 'cap carbonates' (particulate deep-water marine carbonate rocks) associated with a prominent negative carbon isotope excursion. Cap carbonates have been controversially ascribed to the aftermath of almost complete shutdown of the ocean ecosystems for millions of years during such ice ages--the 'snowball Earth' hypothesis. Conversely, it has also been suggested that these carbonate rocks were the result of destabilization of methane hydrates during deglaciation and concomitant flooding of continental shelves and interior basins. The most compelling criticism of the latter 'methane hydrate' hypothesis has been the apparent lack of extreme isotopic variation in cap carbonates inferred locally to be associated with methane seeps. Here we report carbon isotopic and petrographic data from a Neoproterozoic postglacial cap carbonate in south China that provide direct evidence for methane-influenced processes during deglaciation. This evidence lends strong support to the hypothesis that methane hydrate destabilization contributed to the enigmatic cap carbonate deposition and strongly negative carbon isotopic anomalies following Neoproterozoic ice ages. This explanation requires less extreme environmental disturbance than that implied by the snowball Earth hypothesis.     

Ocean productivity before about 1.9 Gyr ago limited by phosphorus adsorption onto iron oxides

After the evolution of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria at some time before 2.7 billion years ago, oxygen production on Earth is thought to have depended on the availability of nutrients in the oceans, such as phosphorus (in the form of orthophosphate). In the modern oceans, a significant removal pathway for phosphorus occurs by way of its adsorption onto iron oxide deposits. Such deposits were thought to be more abundant in the past when, under low sulphate conditions, the formation of large amounts of iron oxides resulted in the deposition of banded iron formations. Under these circumstances, phosphorus removal by iron oxide adsorption could have been enhanced. Here we analyse the phosphorus and iron content of banded iron formations to show that ocean orthophosphate concentrations from 3.2 to 1.9 billion years ago (during the Archaean and early Proterozoic eras) were probably only approximately 10-25% of present-day concentrations. We suggest therefore that low phosphorus availability should have significantly reduced rates of photosynthesis and carbon burial, thereby reducing the long-term oxygen production on the early Earth--as previously speculated--and contributing to the low concentrations of atmospheric oxygen during the late Archaean and early Proterozoic.     

The evolution of the marine phosphate reservoir

Phosphorus is a biolimiting nutrient that has an important role in regulating the burial of organic matter and the redox state of the ocean-atmosphere system. The ratio of phosphorus to iron in iron-oxide-rich sedimentary rocks can be used to track dissolved phosphate concentrations if the dissolved silica concentration of sea water is estimated. Here we present iron and phosphorus concentration ratios from distal hydrothermal sediments and iron formations through time to study the evolution of the marine phosphate reservoir. The data suggest that phosphate concentrations have been relatively constant over the Phanerozoic eon, the past 542 million years (Myr) of Earth's history. In contrast, phosphate concentrations seem to have been elevated in Precambrian oceans. Specifically, there is a peak in phosphorus-to-iron ratios in Neoproterozoic iron formations dating from ～750 to ～635?Myr ago, indicating unusually high dissolved phosphate concentrations in the aftermath of widespread, low-latitude 'snowball Earth' glaciations. An enhanced postglacial phosphate flux would have caused high rates of primary productivity and organic carbon burial and a transition to more oxidizing conditions in the ocean and atmosphere. The snowball Earth glaciations and Neoproterozoic oxidation are both suggested as triggers for the evolution and radiation of metazoans. We propose that these two factors are intimately linked; a glacially induced nutrient surplus could have led to an increase in atmospheric oxygen, paving the way for the rise of metazoan life.     

Regional climate shifts caused by gradual global cooling in the Pliocene epoch

The Earth's climate has undergone a global transition over the past four million years, from warm conditions with global surface temperatures about 3 degrees C warmer than today, smaller ice sheets and higher sea levels to the current cooler conditions. Tectonic changes and their influence on ocean heat transport have been suggested as forcing factors for that transition, including the onset of significant Northern Hemisphere glaciation approximately 2.75 million years ago, but the ultimate causes for the climatic changes are still under debate. Here we compare climate records from high latitudes, subtropical regions and the tropics, indicating that the onset of large glacial/interglacial cycles did not coincide with a specific climate reorganization event at lower latitudes. The regional differences in the timing of cooling imply that global cooling was a gradual process, rather than the response to a single threshold or episodic event as previously suggested. We also find that high-latitude climate sensitivity to variations in solar heating increased gradually, culminating after cool tropical and subtropical upwelling conditions were established two million years ago. Our results suggest that mean low-latitude climate conditions can significantly influence global climate feedbacks.     

Efficient disruption of small asteroids by Earth's atmosphere

Accurate modelling of the interaction between the atmosphere and an incoming bolide is a complex task, but crucial to determining the fraction of small asteroids that actually hit the Earth's surface. Most semi-analytical approaches have simplified the problem by considering the impactor as a strengthless liquid-like object ('pancake' models), but recently a more realistic model has been developed that calculates motion, aerodynamic loading and ablation for each separate particle or fragment in a disrupted impactor. Here we report the results of a large number of simulations in which we use both models to develop a statistical picture of atmosphere-bolide interaction for iron and stony objects with initial diameters up to approximately 1 km. We show that the separated-fragments model predicts the total atmospheric disruption of much larger stony bodies than previously thought. In addition, our data set of >1,000 simulated impacts, combined with the known pre-atmospheric flux of asteroids with diameters less than 1 km, elucidates the flux of small bolides at the Earth's surface. We estimate that bodies >220 m in diameter will impact every 170,000 years.