Precambrian Lunar Volcanic Protolife.

Green, Jack

Five representative terrestrial analogs of lunar craters are detailed relevant to Precambrian fumarolic activity. Fumarolic fluids contain the ingredients for protolife. Energy sources to derive formaldehyde, amino acids and related compounds could be by flow charging, charge separation and volcanic shock. With no photodecomposition in shadow, most fumarolic fluids at 40 K would persist over geologically long time periods. Relatively abundant tungsten would permit creation of critical enzymes, Fischer-Tropsch reactions could form polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and soluble volcanic polyphosphates would enable assembly of nucleic acids. Fumarolic stimuli factors are described. Orbital and lander sensors specific to protolife exploration including combined Raman/laser-induced breakdown spectrocsopy are evaluated.

CALDERAS; POLYMERASE chain reaction; LUNAR craters; VOLCANIC gases; RENEWABLE energy sources; FORMALDEHYDE; AMINO acids; TUNGSTEN; POLYCYCLIC aromatic hydrocarbons; POLYPHOSPHATES

International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2009, Vol 10, Issue 6, p2681

1661-6596

Academic Journal

10.3390/ijms10062681