Work

Impact melting of frozen oceans on the early Earth: Implications for the origin of life

Year: 1994

Type: article

Abstract: Without sufficient greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the early Earth would have become a permanently frozen planet because the young Sun was less luminous than it is today. Several resolutions to this faint young Sun-frozen Earth paradox have been proposed, with an atmosphere rich in CO2 being the one generally favored. However, these models assume that there were no mechanisms for melting a once frozen ocean. Here we show that bolide impacts between about 3.6 and 4.0 billion years ago could have episodically melted an ice-covered early ocean. Thaw-freeze cycles associated with bolide impacts could have been important for the initiation of abiotic reactions that gave rise to the first living organisms.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.91.4.1248

Authors: J. L. Bada, C. Bigham, S. L. Miller

Institutions: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego

Language: English

Topic: Origins and Evolution of Life

Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Aeronautics and Space Administration