Nuclear geyser model of the origin of life: Driving force to promote the synthesis of building blocks of life

We propose the nuclear geyser model to elucidate an optimal site to bear the first life. Our model overcomes the difficulties that previously proposed models have encountered. Nuclear geyser is a geyser driven by a natural nuclear reactor, which was likely common in the Hadean Earth, because of a much higher abundance of U-235 as nuclear fuel. The nuclear geyser supplies the following: (1) high-density ionizing radiation to promote chemical chain reactions that even tar can be used for intermediate material to restart chemical reactions, (2) a system to maintain the circulation of material and energy, which includes cyclic environmental conditions (warm/cool, dry/wet, etc.) to enable to produce complex organic compounds, (3) a lower temperature than 100 degrees C as not to break down macromolecular organic compounds, (4) a locally reductive environment depending on rock types exposed along the geyser wall, and (5) a container to confine and accumulate volatile chemicals. These five factors are the necessary conditions that the birth place of life must satisfy. Only the nuclear geyser can meet all five, in contrast to the previously proposed birth sites, such as tidal flat, submarine hydrothermal vent, and outer space. The nuclear reactor and associated geyser, which maintain the circulations of material and energy with its surrounding environment, are regarded as the nuclear geyser system that enables numerous kinds of chemical reactions to synthesize complex organic compounds, and where the most primitive metabolism could be generated. (C) 2016, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license