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Life on Earth May Have Emerged in the Turmoil of Volcanic Lightning

Life on Earth May Have Emerged in the Turmoil of Volcanic Lightning
February 11, 2024

The commotion of lightning flashing across the sky has been suggested to have a crucial role in releasing elements like phosphorus, making it more accessible to developing life on early Earth. Now, researchers have unearthed geological evidence that the lightning discharges linked with volcanic events may have also contributed to nitrogen fixation, making it available for biological processes as well. This finding suggests that widespread volcanism may have been vital to the evolution of life on our planet.
In the time when Earth was volatile and young, processes transformed a blend of ingredients into the necessary components to initiate life. One key element life requires is nitrogen, an essential nutrient for building proteins, amino acids, and nucleic acids. While Earth has abundant nitrogen in its atmospheric form, molecular nitrogen, or N2, it needs to be split apart and fixed to other atoms to form more reactive compounds.
Before life existed, a non-biological process was needed to kickstart nitrogen fixation, and lightning played a role in this process. Electrical discharges can fix nitrogen, as established in 1784. Since lightning is prevalent during volcanic eruptions triggered by billowing clouds of ash, scientists have hypothesized that volcanic lightning might have played a role in initiating the nitrogen cycle before life emerged.
Researchers collected samples from various volcanic deposits from explosive eruptions in Turkey and Peru, finding significant concentrations of nitrates in all the samples, with features indicating they were formed during volcanic eruptions. They also found nitrates in younger volcanic deposits from less explosive eruptions. The researchers believe that these deposits were not formed gradually over long timescales but deposited all at once. These findings suggest that volcanic lightning can fix nitrogen in significant amounts, potentially playing a role in the emergence of life.
The discovery of nitrate in volcanic deposits provides the first field evidence and geological archive of nitrogen fixation by volcanic lightning. This has significant implications and hints at a unique role played by subaerial explosive eruptions in supplying essential ingredients for the emergence of life on Earth.

OpenAI
Author: OpenAI

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