Journal
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 366, Issue 1580, Pages 2857-2869Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0129
Keywords
RNA world; origin of life; Hadean; Archaean; anoxygenic photosynthesis; serpentine
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Funding
- US National Science Foundation [NSF EAR-0406658 (NHS), EAR-0408690]
- Stanford Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences Endowment Fund
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Submarine hydrothermal vents above serpentinite produce chemical potential gradients of aqueous and ionic hydrogen, thus providing a very attractive venue for the origin of life. This environment was most favourable before Earth's massive CO2 atmosphere was subducted into the mantle, which occurred tens to approximately 100 Myr after the moon-forming impact; thermophile to clement conditions persisted for several million years while atmospheric pCO(2) dropped from approximately 25 bar to below 1 bar. The ocean was weakly acid (pH similar to 6), and a large pH gradient existed for nascent life with pH 9-11 fluids venting from serpentinite on the seafloor. Total CO2 in water was significant so the vent environment was not carbon limited. Biologically important phosphate and Fe(II) were somewhat soluble during this period, which occurred well before the earliest record of preserved surface rocks approximately 3.8 billion years ago (Ga) when photosynthetic life teemed on the Earth and the oceanic pH was the modern value of approximately 8. Serpentinite existed by 3.9 Ga, but older rocks that might retain evidence of its presence have not been found. Earth's sequesters extensive evidence of Archaean and younger subducted biological material, but has yet to be exploited for the Hadean record.
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