Magnesium silicate chimneys at the Strytan hydrothermal field, Iceland, as analogues for prebiotic chemistry at alkaline submarine hydrothermal vents on the early Earth

IF 3.5 3区 地球科学 Q1 GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY Progress in Earth and Planetary Science Pub Date : 2024-02-29 DOI:10.1186/s40645-023-00603-w
Carlos Gutiérrez-Ariza, Laura M. Barge, Yang Ding, Silvana S. S. Cardoso, Shawn Erin McGlynn, Ryuhei Nakamura, Donato Giovanelli, Roy Price, Hye Eun Lee, F. Javier Huertas, C. Ignacio Sainz-Díaz, Julyan H. E. Cartwright
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Abstract

The Strytan Hydrothermal Field (SHF) in basaltic terrain in Iceland is one of the extant alkaline submarine hydrothermal vent systems favoured as analogues for where life on Earth may have begun. To test this hypothesis we analyse the composition, structure, and mineralogy of samples from hydrothermal chimneys generated at the SHF. We find that the chimney precipitates are composed of Mg-silicates including clays of the saponite-stevensite group (high Mg and Si, low Fe and Al), Ca-carbonates and Ca-sulfates. The chimneys comprise permeable structures with pores sizes down to 1 µm or less. Their complex interiors as observed with SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and X-ray CT (computed tomography scanning), exhibit high internal surface areas. EDX (energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) analysis reveals an increase in the Mg/Si ratio toward the chimney exteriors. Chemical garden analogue experiments produce similar Mg–silicate chimneys with porous internal structures, indicating that injection-precipitation experiments can be high-fidelity analogues for natural hydrothermal chimneys at the SHF. We conclude that SHF chimneys could have facilitated prebiotic reactions comparable to those proposed for clays and silica gels at putative Hadean to Eoarchean alkaline vents. Analysis of the fluid dynamics shows that these chimneys are intermediate in growth rate compared to faster black smokers though slower than those at Lost City. The SHF is proposed as a prebiotic alkaline vent analogue for basaltic terrains on the early Earth.

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冰岛斯特里坦热液场的硅酸镁烟囱,作为早期地球上碱性海底热液喷口的前生物化学的类似物
冰岛玄武岩地形中的斯特里坦热液场(SHF)是现存的碱性海底热液喷口系统之一,被认为是地球生命可能起源的类似地点。为了验证这一假设,我们分析了海底热液喷口产生的热液烟囱样本的成分、结构和矿物学。我们发现,烟囱沉淀物由镁硅酸盐组成,包括皂石-闪长岩类粘土(高镁和高硅,低铁和铝)、钙碳酸盐和钙硫酸盐。烟囱由渗透性结构组成,气孔尺寸小至 1 微米或更小。用 SEM(扫描电子显微镜)和 X 射线 CT(计算机断层扫描)观察到的烟囱复杂内部结构显示出很高的内表面积。EDX(能量色散 X 射线光谱)分析显示,烟囱外部的镁/硅比有所增加。化学园模拟实验产生了具有多孔内部结构的类似硅酸镁烟囱,这表明注入沉淀实验可以高保真地模拟 SHF 的天然热液烟囱。我们的结论是,SHF烟囱可能促进了前生物反应,与推定的Hadean至Eoarchean时期碱性喷口的粘土和二氧化硅凝胶的反应相当。流体动力学分析表明,这些烟囱的生长速度介于速度较快的黑烟烟囱之间,但比失落之城的烟囱慢。建议将SHF作为地球早期玄武岩地形的前生物碱性喷口类似物。
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来源期刊
Progress in Earth and Planetary Science
Progress in Earth and Planetary Science Earth and Planetary Sciences-General Earth and Planetary Sciences
CiteScore
6.50
自引率
5.10%
发文量
59
审稿时长
31 weeks
期刊介绍: Progress in Earth and Planetary Science (PEPS), a peer-reviewed open access e-journal, was launched by the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU) in 2014. This international journal is devoted to high-quality original articles, reviews and papers with full data attached in the research fields of space and planetary sciences, atmospheric and hydrospheric sciences, human geosciences, solid earth sciences, and biogeosciences. PEPS promotes excellent review articles and welcomes articles with electronic attachments including videos, animations, and large original data files. PEPS also encourages papers with full data attached: papers with full data attached are scientific articles that preserve the full detailed raw research data and metadata which were gathered in their preparation and make these data freely available to the research community for further analysis.
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