Fluctuating conditions in the hydrothermal medium suitable for the origin of life

Mathematics – Logic

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Abstract According to the elaborating systemic conception of the origin of life, the transition of prebiotic microsystems into simplest living units was stimulated by significant fluctuations of thermodynamic and physic-chemical parameters (Kompanichenko, 2008). Such conditions are considered as a universal factor of the origin of life on a planet. Fluctuations are usual phenomena in hydrothermal systems including their outcrops in ocean or terrestrial groundwater aquifers. In this context characteristics of oscillations in natural hydrothermal systems can be used in advanced laboratory experiments on prebiotic organic synthesis under changeable conditions. To characterize a scale of the thermodynamic and physic-chemical fluctuations four hydrothermal systems were explored: Mutnovsky and Pauzhetsky springs in active volcanic Kamchatka region of eastern Russia, Mura (Slovenia) and Kuldur (Russian Far East) thermal fields situated in volcanically non-active regions. Temperature of water and water-steam mixture in Mutnovsky and Pauzhetsky fields ranges from less than 100 ºC up to 240 ºC, water in Mura and Kuldur thermal basins is characterized with the highest temperature 50-70 ºC. Data of monitoring of pressure, temperature and some chemical parameters in wells of these fields were mathematically processed. Periods of long-range macrofluctuations of pressure and temperature in Mutnovsky and Kuldur fields are 2-4.5 months, maximum amplitudes of temperature in the wells' orifices are 53ºC and 9 ºC correspondingly, maximum amplitude of pressure in Mutnovsky field 34 bars. Periods of minioscillations are from 10 to 70 minutes in Mutnovsky, Pauzhetsky and Mura fields, average amplitudes of pressure are 0.2-0.7 bars. Amplitudes of temperature and pH minioscillations in Mura basin are about 1-2ºC and 0.2 correspondingly; there exists strict positive correlation of temperature with pH, K+, Na+, Ca2+, HCO3-, SO42-, Cl-, F-, concentrations of Mg2+, NH4 +, CO2 change independently. The general conclusion is that minifluctuations of thermodynamic and physicchemical parameters in hydrothermal systems are usual phenomenon. From time to time the parameters significantly change because of macrofluctuations that can be initiated by various causes (including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions). Such changeable nonequilibrium medium was suitable for geological Cradle of life on the early Earth, as well as on other planets. References Kompanichenko V. (2008) Int. Jour. of Astrobiology, 7 (1), 27-46.

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