Marine Hydrothermal Systems and the Origin of Life

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-3

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2. Why are Hydrothermal Systems Proposed as Plausible Environments for the Origin of Life?

   • Nils G. Holm

   Pages 5-14

3. Hydrothermal Systems: Their Varieties, Dynamics, and Suitability for Prebiotic Chemistry

   • Nils G. Holm, Remy J.-C. Hennet

   Pages 15-31

4. Modern Life at High Temperatures

   • Roy M. Daniel

   Pages 33-42

5. Aqueous Organic Geochemistry at High Temperature/High Pressure

   • Bernd R. T. Simoneit

   Pages 43-65

6. Chemical Environments of Submarine Hydrothermal Systems

   • Everett L. Shock

   Pages 67-107

7. Chemical Markers of Prebiotic Chemistry in Hydrothermal Systems

   • James P. Ferris

   Pages 109-134

8. Hydrothermal Organic Synthesis Experiments

   • Everett L. Shock

   Pages 135-146

9. An Experimental Approach to Chemical Evolution in Submarine Hydrothermal Systems

   • Hiroshi Yanagawa, Kensei Kobayashi

   Pages 147-159

10. Mineral Theories of the Origin of Life and an Iron Sulfide Example

    • A. Graham Cairns-Smith, Alan J. Hall, Michael J. Russell

    Pages 161-180

11. Future Research

    • Nils G. Holm, A. Graham Cairns-Smith, Roy M. Daniel, James P. Ferris, Remy J.-C. Hennet, Everett L. Shock et al.

    Pages 181-190

12. Back Matter

    Pages 191-250

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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 categorised 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.

• Ocean
• Oceanography
• evolution
• marine
• the origin

• Dept. of Geology and Geochemistry, Stockholm University, Sweden

  N. G. Holm

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