TY - JOUR
T1 - Concentration of meteoritic free organic matter by fluid transport and adsorption
AU - Potiszil, C.
AU - Tanaka, R.
AU - Ota, T.
AU - Kunihiro, T.
AU - Kobayashi, K.
AU - Nakamura, E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are greatly indebted to PML members for their assistance maintaining the laboratory. We would also like to thank Dr. Kengo Nojima, Tottori Institute of Industrial Technology, for providing the laser profiler information for the Murchison sample discussed within this manuscript. This work was supported by Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors Published by the European Association of Geochemistry
PY - 2020/3/17
Y1 - 2020/3/17
N2 - Carbonaceous chondrites contain many abiotic organic compounds, some of which are found in life on Earth. Both the mineral and organic matter phases, of these meteorites, have been affected by aqueous alteration processes. Whilst organic matter is known to be associated with phyllosilicate phases, no such relationship has yet been identified for specific organic compound classes. Furthermore, ongoing sample return missions, Hyabusa 2 and OSIRIS-Rex, are set to return potentially organic rich C-type asteroid samples to the Earth. Consequently, strategies to investigate organic-mineral relationships are required. Here we report spatial data for free/soluble organic matter (FOM/SOM) components (akylimidazole and alkylpyridine homologues) and mineral phases. Low and intermediate molecular weight alkylimidazole homologues are more widely distributed than higher molecular weight members, likely due to their affinity for the aqueous phase. On aqueous alteration of anhydrous mineral phases, transported FOM is adsorbed onto the surface or into the interlayers of the resulting phyllosilicates and thus concentrated and protected from oxidising fluids. Therefore, aiding the delivery of biologically relevant molecules to earth, shortly preceding the origin of life.
AB - Carbonaceous chondrites contain many abiotic organic compounds, some of which are found in life on Earth. Both the mineral and organic matter phases, of these meteorites, have been affected by aqueous alteration processes. Whilst organic matter is known to be associated with phyllosilicate phases, no such relationship has yet been identified for specific organic compound classes. Furthermore, ongoing sample return missions, Hyabusa 2 and OSIRIS-Rex, are set to return potentially organic rich C-type asteroid samples to the Earth. Consequently, strategies to investigate organic-mineral relationships are required. Here we report spatial data for free/soluble organic matter (FOM/SOM) components (akylimidazole and alkylpyridine homologues) and mineral phases. Low and intermediate molecular weight alkylimidazole homologues are more widely distributed than higher molecular weight members, likely due to their affinity for the aqueous phase. On aqueous alteration of anhydrous mineral phases, transported FOM is adsorbed onto the surface or into the interlayers of the resulting phyllosilicates and thus concentrated and protected from oxidising fluids. Therefore, aiding the delivery of biologically relevant molecules to earth, shortly preceding the origin of life.
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U2 - 10.7185/geochemlet.2010
DO - 10.7185/geochemlet.2010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85093966379
VL - 13
SP - 30
EP - 35
JO - Geochemical Perspectives Letters
JF - Geochemical Perspectives Letters
SN - 2410-339X
ER -