On the Early Chemical History of the Earth and the Origin of Life
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Iron-cored impactors would reduce seawater to hydrogen and create transient, highly reducing atmospheres that may have been important for the origin of life.
“In any case, iron-cored impactors would reduce seawater to hydrogen and create transient, highly reducing atmospheres that may have been important for the origin of life (32, 33).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [32]
In the main text (page unavailable), Urey describes iron-bearing planetesimals striking Earth and argues that the primitive atmosphere contained hydrogen and was reducing; he also links reducing conditions to the origin of life. The paper does not say that iron-cored impactors reduced seawater to hydrogen or produced transient, highly reducing atmospheres. It discusses a potentially long-lived reducing primitive atmosphere instead. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Cites
Reduction of Carbon Dioxide in Aqueous Solutions by Ionizing Radiation
Garrison, W. M., Morrison, D. C., Hamilton, J. G., Benson, A. A., & Calvin, M. (1951) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.114.2964.416 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
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Research works printed but not linked: 15
- James Franck, who has often pointed out to me and others that complex organic compounds, even porphyrins, may have originated under approxi- mately the conditions outlined in this paper. Note added in proof: Since this paper was written an interesting paper by J. D. Bernal on the Physical Basis of Life (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951) has come to my attention, in which very similar suggestions have been made, but there are differences in details and the arguments used. His paper is worthy of serious study. § I am indebted to Dr. H. Gaffron for information relative to these bacteria and algae.
- Urey, H. C., Geochim. et Cosmochim. Acta, 1, 209 (1951). This has been revised and extended in The Planets: Their Origin and Development, Yale University Press, 1952.
- Garrison, W. M., Morrison, D. C., Hamilton, J. G., Benson, A. A. and Calvin, M., Science, 114, 416 (1951).
- Blum, H. F., Time's Arrow and Evolution, Princeton University Press, 1951.
- Baldwin, R. B., The Face of the Moon, University of Chicago Press, 1949.
- See Greenstein, J. L., Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets, edited by G. P. Kuiper, University of Chicago Press, 1949, pp. 117 ff. 7See Spitzer, L., Jr., Ibid., edited by G. P. Kuiper, University of Chicago Press, 1949.
- Rubey, W. W., Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., 62, 1111 (1951).
- Kuiper, G. P., Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets, University of Chicago Press, 1949, p. 304.
- See, for example, Rice, F. O., and Rice, K. K., The Aliphatic Free Radicals, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1935; Free Radical Mechanisms, Steacie, E. W. R., Reinhold, 1946;
- Glockle G., and Lind. S. C., Electrochemistry of Gases and Other Dielectrics, John Wiley, 1939.
- Spitzer, Lyman, Jr., Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets, edited by G. P. Kuiper, University of Chicago Press, 1949.
- Tudge, A. P., and Thode, H. G., Can. J. Res., 28, 567 (1950).
- See Deevey, E. S., Jr., Scientific American, 185, No. 4, 68 (1951) for an interesting mention of Chironomius and of other anaerobic animals. 16 Loc. cit.
- Lane, A. C., Am. J. Sci., 43, 42 (1917).
- MacGregor, A., South African J. Sci.. 24, 155 (1927).
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- Authors
- Urey, H. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Urey, Harold C.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 1952-04
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 351-363
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC1063561
- OpenAlex
- W2081145627
- Cited by
- 498
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 15.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Office of Naval Research
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Keywords
- origin of life, prebiotic chemistry, early Earth atmosphere
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