Morrison Shaunna M, Runyon Simone E, Hazen Robert M
Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, 5251 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA.
Life (Basel). 2018 Dec 17;8(4):64. doi: 10.3390/life8040064.
A preliminary list of plausible near-surface minerals present during Earth's Hadean Eon (>4.0 Ga) should be expanded to include: (1) phases that might have formed by precipitation of organic crystals prior to the rise of predation by cellular life; (2) minerals associated with large bolide impacts, especially through the generation of hydrothermal systems in circumferential fracture zones; and (3) local formation of minerals with relatively oxidized transition metals through abiological redox processes, such as photo-oxidation. Additional mineral diversity arises from the occurrence of some mineral species that form more than one 'natural kind', each with distinct chemical and morphological characteristics that arise by different paragenetic processes. Rare minerals, for example those containing essential B, Mo, or P, are not necessary for the origins of life. Rather, many common minerals incorporate those and other elements as trace and minor constituents. A rich variety of chemically reactive sites were thus available at the exposed surfaces of common Hadean rock-forming minerals.
地球冥古宙（>40亿年前）期间可能存在的近地表矿物的初步清单应予以扩充，以纳入：（1）在细胞生命捕食兴起之前可能通过有机晶体沉淀形成的相；（2）与大型火流星撞击相关的矿物，特别是通过周边断裂带中热液系统的产生而形成的矿物；以及（3）通过非生物氧化还原过程（如光氧化）形成的具有相对氧化态过渡金属的局部矿物。额外的矿物多样性源于一些形成不止一种“自然类型”的矿物物种的出现，每种类型都具有通过不同共生过程产生的独特化学和形态特征。例如，含有必需的硼、钼或磷的稀有矿物对于生命起源并非必不可少。相反，许多常见矿物将这些元素和其他元素作为痕量和次要成分纳入其中。因此，在冥古宙常见的造岩矿物暴露表面存在着丰富多样的化学反应位点。
