Marine Hydrothermal Systems and the Origin of Life: Report of Scor Working Group 91

ISBN-13: 9780792320180 / Angielski / Twarda / 1992 / 250 str.

Scor Working Group 91; N. G. Holm

Opis

Research of the origins of life in connection with a marine environment started at the end of the seventies, when the black smokers in the Pacific were discovered and the Red Sea deep hydrothermal brines were found to be a fruitful environment for abiotic synthesis of life precursors. For a while this research was categorized under the heading Chemistry, but in less than a decade the topic became fully integrated into the science of oceanography. The Scientific Committee on Oceanographic Research (SCOR) initiated working Group 91: Chemical Evolution and Origin of Life in Marine Hydrothermal Systems. This volume contains the final report of this working group.

Spis treści

1 Why are Hydrothermal Systems Proposed as Plausible Environments for the Origin of Life?.- 2 Hydrothermal Systems: Their Varieties, Dynamics, and Suitability for Prebiotic Chemistry.- 3 Modem Life at High Temperatures.- 4 Aqueous Organic Geochemistry at High Temperature/High Pressure.- 5 Chemical Environments of Submarine Hydrothermal Systems.- 6 Chemical Markers of Prebiotic Chemistry in Hydrothermal Systems.- 7 Hydrothermal Organic Synthesis Experiments.- 8 An Experimental Approach to Chemical Evolution in Submarine Hydrothermal Systems.- 9 Mineral Theories of the Origin of Life and an Iron Sulfide Example.- 10 Future Research.- Literature Cited (Chapters 1–10).