深海熱水環境における非生物的な炭化水素合成 : 熱水実験による制約(<特集>有機物・微生物・生態系の地球化学)

概要

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Hydrocarbons and other organic compounds in hydrothermal fluids in deep-sea environments have attracted broad interests because they can work as sources of metabolic energy and various nutrients to microbial communities (primary producer), which maintain the other lives in food-chain in the ocean. Three possible processes have been proposed as sources of hydrocarbons and other organic matters: thermal digestion of biologically formed organic matters such as kerogen and living biomass (thermogenic), production in biological activities (biogenic), and generation by inorganic reactions in hydrothermal systems such as reduction of CO_2 in interactions between ultramafic rocks and hydrothermal solutions in un-sedimented deep seafloor (abiotic). Abiotic synthesis of methane and other hydrocarbons in hydrothermal systems possibly served as a source of prebiotic materials on the early Earth. Therefore, submarine hydrothermal vents are considered as a possible site for the origin of life. Here we review the results of hydrothermal experiments which can make constraints on the abiotic organic carbon syntheses such as Fischer-Tropsch type reactions in deep-sea hydrothermal environments.
2010-12-25