Initial indications of abiotic formation of hydrocarbons in the Rainbow ultramafic hydrothermal system, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Holm, Nils G.; Charlou, J. L.

doi:10.1016/s0012-821x(01)00397-1

Cited by 305 publications

(209 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…With respect to early Earth, impacts into basalts may provide the closest analogous geochemical environments, just as organic formation in ultramafic deepocean hydrothermal systems (Holm & Charlou 2001) are recognized as potentially valuable analogues for early Earth. The 1.8 km diameter, 50 000-year-old Lonar crater, India, resulted from an impact, which occurred into the Deccan traps volcanic province.…”

Section: Craters and The Origin Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

The origin and emergence of life under impact bombardment

Cockell

2006

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

104

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Craters formed by asteroids and comets offer a number of possibilities as sites for prebiotic chemistry, and they invite a literal application of Darwin's 'warm little pond'. Some of these attributes, such as prolonged circulation of heated water, are found in deep-ocean hydrothermal vent systems, previously proposed as sites for prebiotic chemistry. However, impact craters host important characteristics in a single location, which include the formation of diverse metal sulphides, clays and zeolites as secondary hydrothermal minerals (which can act as templates or catalysts for prebiotic syntheses), fracturing of rock during impact (creating a large surface area for reactions), the delivery of iron in the case of the impact of iron-containing meteorites (which might itself act as a substrate for prebiotic reactions), diverse impact energies resulting in different rates of hydrothermal cooling and thus organic syntheses, and the indiscriminate nature of impacts into every available lithologygenerating large numbers of 'experiments' in the origin of life. Following the evolution of life, craters provide cryptoendolithic and chasmoendolithic habitats, particularly in non-sedimentary lithologies, where limited pore space would otherwise restrict colonization. In impact melt sheets, shattered, mixed rocks ultimately provided diverse geochemical gradients, which in present-day craters support the growth of microbial communities.

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Section: Craters and The Origin Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

The origin and emergence of life under impact bombardment

Cockell

2006

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

104

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“…Serpentinite is also important as a deep -seated reservoir of H 2 O, which possibly plays a crucial role in arc magma genesis (e.g., Ulmer and Trommsdorff, 1995). The highly reduced fluids, H 2 and CH 4 , are released upon the serpentinization of peridotites (e.g., Holm and Charlou, 2001;Sleep et al, 2004), and they may control, at least partly, the redox condition of the mantle wedge (cf. Ishimaru et al, 2009) as well as the ecosystem on the ocean floor (e.g., Kelley et al, 2005;Evans, 2010;Müntener, 2010), where mantle peridotite is exposed at shallow depths.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raman spectroscopy of hydrous inclusions in olivine and orthopyroxene in ophiolitic harzburgite: Implications for elementary processes in serpentinization

Miura

Arai

Mizukami

2011

Journal of Mineralogical and Petrological Sciences

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Secondary microinclusions in olivine and orthopyroxene in a harzburgite sample obtained from northern Oman ophiolite were examined by micro -Raman spectroscopy. The microinclusions were a consequence of fluid inclusions trapped by the minerals during the healing of fluid -filled cracks. We can expect an almost closed -system reaction to have occurred between the fluid and minerals. We attempted to distinguish the individual contributions of olivine and orthopyroxene to the serpentinization of peridotite. The inclusions in olivine mainly consist of lizardite and brucite with small amounts of magnetite, H 2 , and CH 4 , while those in orthopyroxene mainly consist of talc and chromian spinel with or without CH 4 and graphite. The fluid involved was most probably a mixture of H 2 O and a smaller amount of CO 2 . We examined whether reduced gases were produced through reactions of the fluid with olivine and orthopyroxene. The role of magnetite (or magnetite component in chromian spinel) is of vital importance in the generation of these gases. Orthopyroxene facilitates the formation of talc in the serpentinization of peridotite.

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“…Biotic methanogenesis is usually associated with archaea, living under anaerobic conditions in wetlands, rice fields, landfills or the gastrointestinal tracts of ruminants and termites. Abiotic formation of CH 4 has been reported to occur under conditions that require high pressure and/or temperature, for instance, during biomass burning or serpentinization of olivine, under hydrothermal conditions in the oceans' depths or below tectonic plates [5][6][7] . In the chemical industry, CH 4 is often produced from carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas under elevated pressure and temperature (cf.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Abiotic methanogenesis from organosulphur compounds under ambient conditions

et al. 2014

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Methane in the environment is produced by both biotic and abiotic processes. Biomethanation involves the formation of methane by microbes that live in oxygen-free environments. Abiotic methane formation proceeds under conditions at elevated temperature and/or pressure. Here we present a chemical reaction that readily forms methane from organosulphur compounds under highly oxidative conditions at ambient atmospheric pressure and temperature. When using iron(II/III), hydrogen peroxide and ascorbic acid as reagents, S-methyl groups of organosulphur compounds are efficiently converted into methane. In a first step, methyl sulphides are oxidized to the corresponding sulphoxides. In the next step, demethylation of the sulphoxide via homolytic bond cleavage leads to methyl radical formation and finally to methane in high yields. Because sulphoxidation of methyl sulphides is ubiquitous in the environment, this novel chemical route might mimic methane formation in living aerobic organisms.

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Initial indications of abiotic formation of hydrocarbons in the Rainbow ultramafic hydrothermal system, Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Cited by 305 publications

References 28 publications

The origin and emergence of life under impact bombardment

The origin and emergence of life under impact bombardment

Raman spectroscopy of hydrous inclusions in olivine and orthopyroxene in ophiolitic harzburgite: Implications for elementary processes in serpentinization

Abiotic methanogenesis from organosulphur compounds under ambient conditions

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