Special Issue: Abstracts From the 2008 Issol Meeting

Orange, François; Westall, Francès; Disnar, Jean-Robert; Prieur, Daniel; Gautret, Pascale; Romancer, Marc Le; Défarge, Christian

doi:10.1007/s11084-009-9164-7

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 91 publications

(118 reference statements)

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“…It is a concept which differs from the concept of catalysis where minerals are recovered unchanged after the reactions. I first proposed this action of rocks as reactants and not only as catalysts in Bassez ( 2003 ): “Therefore, specific reactions might occur in particular cavities, while cavity walls might act as catalysts or reactants.” This idea started to be developped in Bassez ( 2008 , 2009a , b ), considering a chemical evolution with a geological origin. Experiments were proposed with the rock peridotite as reactant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water near its Supercritical Point and at Alkaline pH for the Production of Ferric Oxides and Silicates in Anoxic Conditions. A New Hypothesis for the Synthesis of Minerals Observed in Banded Iron Formations and for the Related Geobiotropic Chemistry inside Fluid Inclusions

Bassez

2018

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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An alternative hypothesis for the origin of the banded iron formations and the synthesis of prebiotic molecules is presented here. I show the importance of considering water near its supercritical point and at alkaline pH. It is based on the chemical equation for the anoxic oxidation of ferrous iron into ferric iron at high-subcritical conditions of water and high pH, that I extract from E-pH diagrams drawn for corrosion purposes (Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol 15, EGU2013–22 Bassez 2013, Orig Life Evol Biosph 45(1):5-13, Bassez 2015, Procedia Earth Planet Sci 17, 492-495, Bassez 2017a, Orig Life Evol Biosph 47:453-480, Bassez 2017b). The sudden change in solubility of silica, SiO2, at the critical point of water is also considered. It is shown that under these temperatures and pressures, ferric oxides and ferric silicates can form in anoxic terrains. No FeII oxidation by UV light, neither by oxygen is needed to explain the minerals of the Banded Iron Formations. The intervention of any kind of microorganisms, either sulfate-reducing, or FeII-oxidizing or O2-producing, is not required. The chemical equation for the anoxic oxidation of ferrous iron is applied to the hydrolyses of fayalite, Fe2SiO4 and ferrosilite, FeSiO3. It is shown that the BIF minerals of the Hamersley Group, Western Australia, and the Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa, are those of fayalite and ferrosilite hydrolyses and carbonations. The dissolution of crustal fayalite and ferrosilite during water-rock interaction needs to occur at T&P just below the critical point of water and in a rising water which is undersaturated in SiO2. Minerals of BIFs which can then be ejected at the surface from venting arcs are ferric oxide hydroxides, hematite, FeIII-greenalite, siderite. The greenalite dehydrated product minnesotaite forms when rising water becomes supersaturated in SiO2, as also riebeckite and stilpnomelane. Long lengths of siderite without ferric oxides neither ferric silicates can occur since the exothermic siderite formation is not so much dependent in T&P. It is also shown that the H2 which is released during hydrolysis/oxidation of fayalite/ferrosilite can lead to components of life, such as macromolecules of amino acids which are synthesized from mixtures of (CO, N2, H2O) in Sabatier-Senderens/Fischer-Tropsch & Haber-Bosch reactions or microwave or gamma-ray excitation reactions. I propose that such geobiotropic synthesis may occur inside fluid inclusions of BIFs, in the silica chert, hematite, FeIII-greenalite or siderite. Therefore, the combination of high-subcritical conditions of water, high solubility of SiO2 at these T&P values, formation of CO also at these T&P, high pH and anoxic water, leads to the formation of ferric minerals and prebiotic molecules in the process of geobiotropy.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water near its Supercritical Point and at Alkaline pH for the Production of Ferric Oxides and Silicates in Anoxic Conditions. A New Hypothesis for the Synthesis of Minerals Observed in Banded Iron Formations and for the Related Geobiotropic Chemistry inside Fluid Inclusions

Bassez

2018

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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“…It has often been suggested that polyphosphates were involved in prebiotic evolution (Kulaev 1979;Kulaev et al 2004;Griffith et al 1977; Keefe and Miller 1995;Fernández-Garcia et al 2017;Prieur 2009), where a strong case advocating this molecular family has been made (Gabel 1973(Gabel , 1977. There is, however, no general acceptance for the above rolls of condensed phosphates in prebiotic biochemistry.…”

Section: Chemistrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These molecules released into the terrestrial environment, when allowed to react with endogenous terrestrial trimetaphosphate (Yamagata et al 1995), could be the mechanism by which the first polynucleotides were generated. In other work employing a simulated hydrothermal environment containing trimetaphosphate and borate salts, ribose was phosphorylated to ribose-5-phosphate (Prieur 2009).…”

Section: Terrestrial Synthesis Reactionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Did Cyclic Metaphosphates Have a Role in the Origin of Life?

Glonek

2021

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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How life began still eludes science life, the initial progenote in the context presented herein, being a chemical aggregate of primordial inorganic and organic molecules capable of self-replication and evolution into ever increasingly complex forms and functions.Presented is a hypothesis that a mineral scaffold generated by geological processes and containing polymerized phosphate units was present in primordial seas that provided the initiating factor responsible for the sequestration and organization of primordial life’s constituents. Unlike previous hypotheses proposing phosphates as the essential initiating factor, the key phosphate described here is not a polynucleotide or just any condensed phosphate but a large (in the range of at least 1 kilo-phosphate subunits), water soluble, cyclic metaphosphate, which is a closed loop chain of polymerized inorganic phosphate residues containing only phosphate middle groups. The chain forms an intrinsic 4-phosphate helix analogous to its structure in Na Kurrol’s salt, and as with DNA, very large metaphosphates may fold into hairpin structures. Using a Holliday-junction-like scrambling mechanism, also analogous to DNA, rings may be manipulated (increased, decreased, exchanged) easily with little to no need for additional energy, the reaction being essentially an isomerization.A literature review is presented describing findings that support the above hypothesis. Reviewed is condensed phosphate inorganic chemistry including its geological origins, biological occurrence, enzymes and their genetics through eukaryotes, polyphosphate functions, circular polynucleotides and the role of the Holliday junction, previous biogenesis hypotheses, and an Eoarchean Era timeline.

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