GOE-DEEP, Gabon is an international drilling project that seeks to shed light on a pivotal moment in Earth’s history: when oxygen first started to build up in the atmosphere and oceans during the Paleoproterozoic era, roughly 2.0 to 2.5 billion years ago. Scientists plan to drill eight to eleven boreholes in Gabon’s Franceville Basin, one of the best-preserved archives of rocks from this time, to recover fresh core samples. By studying these cores—their sedimentology, fossils, ages, and chemistry—researchers aim to reconstruct ancient environments, ecosystems, and chemical changes, and to test ideas about how oxygenation spread and how early life responded. The project will build a new, integrated knowledge base that helps interpret geochemical signals found in rocks and clarifies what the world looked like as its air and seas were evolving toward more oxygen-rich conditions.

Keywords: Africa, Gabon, Francevillian, Paleoproterozoic, Biochemical Cycles, Great Oxidation Event, Redox Conditions. FAR-DEEP project