The rocky road to organics needs drying.

ABSTRACT: How simple abiotic organic compounds evolve toward more complex molecules of potentially prebiotic importance remains a missing key to establish where life possibly emerged. The limited variety of abiotic organics, their low concentrations and the possible pathways identified so far in hydrothermal fluids have long hampered a unifying theory of a hydrothermal origin for the emergence of life on Earth. Here we present an alternative road to abiotic organic synthesis and diversification in hydrothermal environments, which involves magmatic degassing and water-consuming mineral reactions occurring in mineral microcavities. This combination gathers key gases (N₂, H₂, CH₄, CH₃SH) and various polyaromatic materials associated with nanodiamonds and mine

SUBMITTER: Andreani M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9867705 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature