TY - JOUR
T1 - Elements for the Origin of Life on Land
T2 - A Deep-Time Perspective from the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia
AU - Van Kranendonk, Martin
AU - Baumgartner, Raphael
AU - Djokic, Tara
AU - Ota, Tsutomu
AU - Steller, Luke
AU - Garbe, Ulf
AU - Nakamura, Eizo
N1 - Funding Information:
M.V.K., T.D., and R.B. acknowledge support from UNSW, the Sloan Foundation of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (CCFS), and funds from ARC Discovery Project 180103204. E.N. and T.O. are supported by MEXT, Japan. This is CCFS Publication number 1486.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2021, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2021.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - For decades, deep sea hydrothermal vents have been a preferred setting for the Origin of Life, but "The Water Problem"as relates to polymerization of organic molecules, together with a propensity to dilute critical prebiotic elements as well as a number of other crucial factors, suggests that a terrestrial hot spring field with the capacity for wet-dry cycling and element concentration may represent a more likely candidate. Here, we investigate a 3.5 billion-year-old, anoxic hot spring setting from the Pilbara Craton (Australia) and show that its hydrothermal veins and compositionally varied pools and springs concentrated all of the essential elements required for prebiotic chemistry (including B, Zn, Mn, and K, in addition to C, H, N, O, P, and S). Temporal variability (seasonal to decadal), together with the known propensity of hot springs for wet-dry cycling and information exchange, would lead to innovation pools with peaks of fitness for developing molecules. An inference from the chemical complexity of the Pilbara analogue is that life could perhaps get started quickly on planets with volcanoes, silicate rocks, an exposed land surface, and water, ingredients that should form the backbone in the search for life in the Universe.
AB - For decades, deep sea hydrothermal vents have been a preferred setting for the Origin of Life, but "The Water Problem"as relates to polymerization of organic molecules, together with a propensity to dilute critical prebiotic elements as well as a number of other crucial factors, suggests that a terrestrial hot spring field with the capacity for wet-dry cycling and element concentration may represent a more likely candidate. Here, we investigate a 3.5 billion-year-old, anoxic hot spring setting from the Pilbara Craton (Australia) and show that its hydrothermal veins and compositionally varied pools and springs concentrated all of the essential elements required for prebiotic chemistry (including B, Zn, Mn, and K, in addition to C, H, N, O, P, and S). Temporal variability (seasonal to decadal), together with the known propensity of hot springs for wet-dry cycling and information exchange, would lead to innovation pools with peaks of fitness for developing molecules. An inference from the chemical complexity of the Pilbara analogue is that life could perhaps get started quickly on planets with volcanoes, silicate rocks, an exposed land surface, and water, ingredients that should form the backbone in the search for life in the Universe.
KW - Analogue.
KW - Archean
KW - Hot springs
KW - Origin of Life
KW - Pilbara
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U2 - 10.1089/ast.2019.2107
DO - 10.1089/ast.2019.2107
M3 - Article
C2 - 33404294
AN - SCOPUS:85099119857
VL - 21
SP - 39
EP - 59
JO - Astrobiology
JF - Astrobiology
SN - 1531-1074
IS - 1
ER -