Impact-shocked rocks - insights into archean and extraterrestrial microbial habitats (and sites for prebiotic chemistry?)

Details Impact-shocked rocks - insights into archean and extraterrestrial microbial habitats (and sites for prebiotic chemistry?) Impact-shocked rocks - insights into archean and extraterrestrial microbial habitats (and sites for prebiotic chemistry?)

Jan 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004adspr..33.1231c&link_type=abstract

Advances in Space Research, Volume 33, Issue 8, p. 1231-1235.

Biology

1

Astrobiology, Archean Extraterrestrial Microbial Habitats, Prebiotic Chemistry

Scientific paper

Impact-shocked gneiss shocked to greater than 10 GPa in the Haughton impact structure in the Canadian High Arctic has an approximately 25-times greater pore surface area than unshocked rocks. These pore spaces provide microhabitats for a diversity of heterotrophic microorganisms and in the near-surface environment of the rocks, where light levels are sufficient, cyanobacteria. Shocked rocks provide a moisture retaining, UV protected microenvironment. During the Archean, when impact fluxes were more than two orders of magnitude higher than today, the shocked-rock habitat was one of the most common terrestrial habitats and might have provided a UV-shielded refugium for primitive life. These potential habitats are in high abundance on Mars where impact crater habitats could have existed over geologic time periods of billions of years, suggesting that impact-shocked rocks are important sites to search for biomolecules in extraterrestrial life detection strategies. In addition to being favourable sites for life, during the prebiotic period of planetary history impact-shocked rocks might have acted as a site for the concentration of reactants for prebiotic syntheses.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Impact-shocked rocks - insights into archean and extraterrestrial microbial habitats (and sites for prebiotic chemistry?) does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Impact-shocked rocks - insights into archean and extraterrestrial microbial habitats (and sites for prebiotic chemistry?), we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Impact-shocked rocks - insights into archean and extraterrestrial microbial habitats (and sites for prebiotic chemistry?) will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1837595