The DOI matches its Crossref record; 142 of the 148 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Earth's Earliest Atmospheres
Open accessAbstract
Earth is the one known example of an inhabited planet and to current knowledge the likeliest site of the one known origin of life. Here we discuss the origin of Earth's atmosphere and ocean and some of the environmental conditions of the early Earth as they may relate to the origin of life. A key punctuating event in the narrative is the Moon-forming impact, partly because it made Earth for a short time absolutely uninhabitable, and partly because it sets the boundary conditions for Earth's subsequent evolution. If life began on Earth, as opposed to having migrated here, it would have done so after the Moon-forming impact. What took place before the Moon formed determined the bulk properties of the Earth and probably determined the overall compositions and sizes of its atmospheres and oceans. What took place afterward animated these materials. One interesting consequence of the Moon-forming impact is that the mantle is devolatized, so that the volatiles subsequently fell out in a kind of condensation sequence. This ensures that the volatiles were concentrated toward the surface so that, for example, the oceans were likely salty from the start. We also point out that an atmosphere generated by impact degassing would tend to have a composition reflective of the impacting bodies (rather than the mantle), and these are almost without exception strongly reducing and volatile-rich. A consequence is that, although CO- or methane-rich atmospheres are not necessarily stable as steady states, they are quite likely to have existed as long-lived transients, many times. With CO comes abundant chemical energy in a metastable package, and with methane comes hydrogen cyanide and ammonia as important albeit less abundant gases.
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“Besides the main atmospheric species CO 2 and N 2 there is much evidence that H 2 O and biogenic CH 4 were most likely also present around 2.6 - 2.8 Ga (Hinrichs 2002; Zahnle et al. 2010; Zerkle et al. 2012; Lammer et al. 2018).”
From The young Sun's XUV-activity as a constraint for lower CO2-limits in the Earth's Archean atmosphere (2021) · cites this paper as Zahnle et al. 2010
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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).”
From The Emergence of Life (2019) · cites this paper as Zahnle et al. 2010
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“In particular, Earth's early atmosphere formed via volcanic degassing (see Section 3.2.2), which would have provided N2, CO2, and water, with small quantities of H2, CO, and CH4, and negligible amounts of O2 (Zahnle et al., 2010).”
From The Astrobiology Primer v2.0 (2016) · cites this paper as Zahnle et al., 2010
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“The current consensus, however, is that the early atmosphere as a stable steady state most likely would have been largely neutral, comprised primarily of CO2 and N2, although more reducing atmospheres could have existed transiently [59,60].”
From Prebiotic Reaction Networks in Water (2020) · cites this paper as [60]
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Citations
Cites
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Vago, J. L., Westall, F., Teams, L. S. P. I., Coates, A. J., Ralf Jaumann, E., Korablev, O., Ciarletti, V., Mitrofanov, I. G., Josset, J., Sanctis, M. C. D., et al. (2017) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2016.1533 · Cited by 519
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Russell, M. J., Barge, L. M., Bhartia, R., Bocanegra, D., Bracher, P. J., Branscomb, E., Kidd, R., McGlynn, S., Meier, D. H., Nitschke, W., et al. (2014) · Astrobiology · doi:10.1089/ast.2013.1110 · Cited by 288
“The melting of bolides on impact may have produced occasional short-lived excursions to high CH4 partial pressures, though radiative reoxidation was likely rapid (Zahnle et al., 2010).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Zahnle, K., Schaefer, L., & Fegley, B.
- Affiliations
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zahnle, K.
- Venue
- Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology
- Publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Published
- 2010-06-23
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- a004895-a004895
- ISSN
- 1943-0264 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2944365
- OpenAlex
- W2144682212
- Cited by
- 298
- References
- 148
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 7
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- 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 › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Space and Planetary Science › Astro and Planetary Science
- Keywords
- early Earth atmosphere, origin of life, Moon-forming impact, reducing atmosphere, methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, volatile condensation
- MeSH terms
- Origin of Life, Atmosphere, Moon, Earth, Planet
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