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The Hadean-Archaean Environment
Open accessAbstract
A sparse geological record combined with physics and molecular phylogeny constrains the environmental conditions on the early Earth. The Earth began hot after the moon-forming impact and cooled to the point where liquid water was present in approximately 10 million years. Subsequently, a few asteroid impacts may have briefly heated surface environments, leaving only thermophile survivors in kilometer-deep rocks. A warm 500 K, 100 bar CO(2) greenhouse persisted until subducted oceanic crust sequestered CO(2) into the mantle. It is not known whether the Earth's surface lingered in a approximately 70 degrees C thermophile environment well into the Archaean or cooled to clement or freezing conditions in the Hadean. Recently discovered approximately 4.3 Ga rocks near Hudson Bay may have formed during the warm greenhouse. Alkalic rocks in India indicate carbonate subduction by 4.26 Ga. The presence of 3.8 Ga black shales in Greenland indicates that S-based photosynthesis had evolved in the oceans and likely Fe-based photosynthesis and efficient chemical weathering on land. Overall, mantle derived rocks, especially kimberlites and similar CO(2)-rich magmas, preserve evidence of subducted upper oceanic crust, ancient surface environments, and biosignatures of photosynthesis.
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“At the global scale, the Earth’s atmosphere was mostly nitrogen with a substantial fraction of carbon dioxide [1].”
From The Role of Lipid Membranes in Life’s Origin (2017) · cites this paper as [1]
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“The chemical disequilibrium at off-ridge hydrothermal vents on the early Earth was, in all likelihood, much greater than that today. This is because there was much more CO2 in the atmosphere, perhaps up to 1000 times more [32,33], meaning that there would have been much higher CO2 concentrations in the ocean.”
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“Geochemical and isotopic evidence suggests that the atmosphere of the post-Moon forming impact Earth was more neutral rather than completely reducing (Holland 1984;Sleep 2010;Zahnle et al. 2010).”
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“In the Hadean it appears that plate tectonics as we know it may not have existed [98,104,145,146], and that there was a much greater exposure of mantle rock on the sea floor [147,148].”
From ‘Whole Organism’, Systems Biology, and Top-Down Criteria for Evaluating Scenarios for the Origin of Life (2021) · cites this paper as [146]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Sleep, N. H.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sleep, N. H.
- ORCID
- Sleep, N. H.
- Venue
- Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology
- Publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Published
- 2010-05-05
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- a002527-a002527
- ISSN
- 1943-0264 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2869525
- OpenAlex
- W2065361798
- Cited by
- 228
- References
- 75
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 8
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geological and Geochemical Analysis
- Keywords
- early Earth conditions, Hadean, Archean, early Earth climate, asteroid impact, Moon-forming impact, kimberlite, black shales, evolution of photosynthesis, chemical weathering, biosignatures, molecular phylogeny, subducted oceanic crust
- MeSH terms
- Environment, Minerals, Earth, Planet, Geologic Sediments, Evolution, Planetary
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