Ancient Source of Oxygen for Life Hidden Deep in the Earth's Crust
Published:09 Aug.2022 Source:Newcastle University
The pioneering research project, led by Newcastle University's School of Natural and Environmental Sciences and published today in Nature Communications, uncovered a mechanism that can generate hydrogen peroxide from rocks during the movement of geological faults. While in high concentrations hydrogen peroxide can be harmful to life, it can also provide a useful source of oxygen to microbes. This additional source of oxygen may have influenced the early evolution, and feasibly even origin, of life in hot environments on the early Earth prior to the evolution of photosynthesis.
In tectonically active regions, the movement of the Earth's crust not only generates earthquakes but riddles the subsurface with cracks and fractures lined with highly reactive rock surfaces containing many imperfections, or defects. Water can then filter down and react with these defects on the newly fractured rock. In the laboratory, Masters student Jordan Stone simulated these conditions by crushing granite, basalt and peridotite -- rock types that would have been present in the early Earth's crust. These were then added to water under well controlled oxygen-free conditions at varying temperatures.