Sprecher
Beschreibung
Bettina Scheu
The sparse preservation of early Archean rock records leaves Earth’s earliest geological environments poorly constrained and their suitability for prebiotic chemical evolution largely speculative. Identifying plausible setting(s) for the emergence of life therefore remains one of the central challenges in origins research.
Many promising candidate settings are intrinsically linked to volcanic activity, which shaped the early planetary surface while driving elemental recycling and transport between Earth’s interior, crust, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Volcanic systems also generate persistent physical and chemical disequilibria that promote fluid–rock interactions, including leaching, precipitation, and remineralization, thereby creating chemically reactive niches favorable for prebiotic processes.
Modern volcanic terrains such as Iceland provide valuable natural analogues for investigating such environments. Extensive basaltic volcanism, active hydrothermal systems, geysers and silica sinters, fluid circulation through fresh volcanic substrates, and pronounced thermal and chemical gradients make Iceland an exceptional field laboratory for studying geologically driven prebiotic reactions. However, modern analogues remain limited by fundamental differences between present-day Earth and the early Archean, including atmospheric composition, ocean chemistry, biological overprint, and planetary heat flux. Laboratory experiments under controlled (geochemical) conditions therefore provide an essential complementary approach to bridge this gap.
Combining Icelandic field analogues with experimental simulations offers a means to better constrain the range, dynamics, and habitability of volcanically driven environments that may have supported prebiotic chemistry during life’s emergence.