But there are a few telltale hints, including the shape and chemical distribution of the structures, that likely "rule out an abiogenic origin," according to the team.
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An abiogenic substance or process does not result from the present or past activity of living organisms. Abiogenic products may, e.g., be minerals, other inorganic compounds, as well as simple organic compounds (e.g. extraterrestrial methane, see also abiogenesis).
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Mendeleev studied petroleum origin and concluded hydrocarbons are abiogenic and form deep within the earth – see Abiogenic petroleum origin. He wrote: "The capital fact to note is that petroleum was born in the depths of the earth, and it is only there that we must seek its origin." (Dmitri Mendeleev, 1877)Mendeleev, D., 1877. L'Origine du pétrole.
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Macdonald volcano may be a major source of heavy metals for the area. The methane appears to be partially of biological origin and partly abiogenic.
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One argument for abiogenic oil cites the high carbon depletion of methane as stemming from the observed carbon isotope depletion with depth in the crust. However, diamonds, which are definitively of mantle origin, are not as depleted as methane, which implies that methane carbon isotope fractionation is not controlled by mantle values.M. R. Mello and J. M. Moldowan (2005). Petroleum: To Be Or Not To Be Abiogenic.
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Direct observation of bacterial mats and fracture-fill carbonate and humin of bacterial origin in deep boreholes in Australia are also taken as evidence for the abiogenic origin of petroleum.
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An abiogenic hypothesis was first proposed by Georgius Agricola in the 16th century and various additional abiogenic hypotheses were proposed in the 19th century, most notably by Prussian geographer Alexander von Humboldt, the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (1877) and the French chemist Marcellin Berthelot. Abiogenic hypotheses were revived in the last half of the 20th century by Soviet scientists who had little influence outside the Soviet Union because most of their research was published in Russian. The hypothesis was re-defined and made popular in the West by Thomas Gold, who developed his theories from 1979 to 1998 and published his research in English. Abraham Gottlob Werner and the proponents of neptunism in the 18th century regarded basaltic sills as solidified oils or bitumen.
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All discoveries were made in places shown on the 1986 prognostic map as promising areas. The result is convincingly positive, and this is a strong contribution in support of abiogenic theory of oil origin.
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Other proposed abiogenic processes include radiolysis by the radioactive isotope of potassium, 40K, or annual turnover of basin water combined with upwelling of iron-rich water in a stratified ocean. Another abiogenic mechanism is photooxidation of iron by sunlight. Laboratory experiments suggest that this could produce a sufficiently high deposition rate under likely conditions of pH and sunlight. However, if the iron came from a shallow hydrothermal source, other laboratory experiments suggest that precipitation of ferrous iron as carbonates or silicates could seriously compete with photooxidation.
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Methane is ubiquitous in crustal fluid and gas. Research continues to attempt to characterise crustal sources of methane as biogenic or abiogenic using carbon isotope fractionation of observed gases (Lollar & Sherwood 2006). There are few clear examples of abiogenic methane-ethane- butane, as the same processes favor enrichment of light isotopes in all chemical reactions, whether organic or inorganic. δ13C of methane overlaps that of inorganic carbonate and graphite in the crust, which are heavily depleted in 12C, and attain this by isotopic fractionation during metamorphic reactions.
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A Fischer–Tropsch-type process has also been suggested to have produced a few of the building blocks of DNA and RNA within asteroids. Similarly, the hypothetical abiogenic petroleum formation requires some naturally occurring FT-like processes.
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This trend has been observed by looking at the chemistry of both biogenic and abiogenic carbonates, dating them, and analyzing the conditions under which they were formed. Various studies have examined these relationships and concluded that the mineralogy of both biogenic (major carbonate sediment and rock-forming organisms) and abiogenic marine carbonates (limestones and marls) throughout Phanerozoic time has generally been synchronized with calcium carbonate mineralogies expected from seawater magnesium/calcium ratios reconstructed from derivatives of ancient seawater trapped in halite crystals in the geologic record (fluid inclusions).
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These are highly exothermic reactions. Russell demonstrated that alkaline vents created an abiogenic proton motive force (PMF) chemiosmotic gradient, in which conditions are ideal for an abiogenic hatchery for life. Their microscopic compartments "provide a natural means of concentrating organic molecules," composed of iron-sulfur minerals such as mackinawite, endowed these mineral cells with the catalytic properties envisaged by Günter Wächtershäuser. This movement of ions across the membrane depends on a combination of two factors: # Diffusion force caused by concentration gradient—all particles including ions tend to diffuse from higher concentration to lower.
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While these notions proved unfounded, the basic idea of an association between petroleum and magmatism persisted. Alexander von Humboldt proposed an inorganic abiogenic hypothesis for petroleum formation after he observed petroleum springs in the Bay of Cumaux (Cumaná) on the northeast coast of Venezuela. He is quoted as saying in 1804, "the petroleum is the product of a distillation from great depth and issues from the primitive rocks beneath which the forces of all volcanic action lie". Other early prominent proponents of what would become the generalized abiogenic hypothesis included Dmitri Mendeleev and Berthelot.
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Trifonov unveiled multiple novel codes in biological sequences and the modular structure of proteins. He proposed an abiogenic theory of the origin of life, and molecular evolution from single nucleotides and amino acids to present-day DNA and protein sequences.
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Guberman, M. Zhidkov, Y. Pikovsky, E. Rantsman (1986). Some criteria of oil and gas potential of morphostructural nodes in the Andes, South America. Doklady of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Earth Science Sections, 291. based on abiogenic petroleum origin theory.
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The theory that petroleum derives from biogenic processes is held by the overwhelming majority of petroleum geologists. However, abiogenic theorists, such as the late professor of astronomy Thomas Gold, assert that oil may be a continually renewing abiotic product, rather than a “fossil fuel” in limited supply. They hypothesize that if abiogenic petroleum sources are found and are quick to replenish, petroleum production will not decline. Gold was not able to prove his theories in experimentsThomas Gold#Drilling in Siljan One of the main counter arguments to the abiotic theory is the existence of biomarkers in petroleum.
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Some abiogenic hypotheses have proposed that oil and gas did not originate from fossil deposits, but have instead originated from deep carbon deposits, present since the formation of the Earth. Additionally, it has been suggested that hydrocarbons may have arrived on Earth from solid bodies such as comets and asteroids from the late formation of the Solar System, carrying hydrocarbons with them. The abiogenic hypothesis regained some support in 2009 when researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm reported they believed they had proven that fossils from animals and plants are not necessary for crude oil and natural gas to be generated.
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He also pointed to the abundance of helium in oil and gas reserves as evidence for "a deep source of the hydrocarbons". Moreover, a few oil reserves thought to have been exhausted were suddenly generating vast amounts of crude oil. From this, Gold proposed that the Earth may possess a virtually endless supply – suggesting as much as "at least 500 million years' worth of gas" – of fossil fuels.. Gold was accused of plagiarizing the abiogenic theory from Soviet geologists who first published it in the 1950s, but the accusations were refuted. After first publishing his views on abiogenic petroleum in 1979, Gold began finding the papers on the subject by Soviet geologists and had them translated.
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Another example of distinct site-specific fractionations in abiotic molecules is Fischer-Tropsch-type synthesis, which is thought to produce abiogenic hydrocarbon chains. Through this reaction mechanism, site enrichments of carbon would deplete as carbon chain length increases, and be distinct from site-specific enrichments of hydrocarbons of biological origins.
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Vladimir Borisovich Porfiryev, , (June 26, 1899 in Vyatka, now Kirov, Russia – January 30, 1982 in Kiev) was a Russian and Ukrainian petroleum and coal geologist. Porfiryev was one of the major proponents of the theory of the origin of Abiogenic petroleum, that is, that petroleum was formed by primordial non-biological processes rather than from the decaying remains of plant and animal life.
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Panhandle-Hugoton field (Anadarko Basin) in the south-central United States is the most important gas field with commercial helium content. Some abiogenic proponents interpret this as evidence that both the helium and the natural gas came from the mantle.Gold, T., and M. Held, 1987, Helium-nitrogen-methane systematics in natural gases of Texas and Kansas: Journal of Petroleum Geology, v. 10, no.
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4, p. 415–424. The Bạch Hổ oil field in Vietnam has been proposed as an example of abiogenic oil because it is 4,000 m of fractured basement granite, at a depth of 5,000 m. However, others argue that it contains biogenic oil which leaked into the basement horst from conventional source rocks within the Cuu Long basin.White Tiger oilfield, Vietnam.
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Abiotic methane ordinarily only forms at temperatures much higher than those that occur in the rocks at Yanartaş. However, ruthenium is present in the igneous rocks under the flames, and is believed to act as a catalyst, permitting the formation of methane at the lower temperatures (i.e., below 100 °C) that occur at Yanartaş. These vents represent the biggest emission of abiogenic methane discovered on land so far.
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Shungite has been regarded as an example of abiogenic petroleum formation, but its biological origin has now been confirmed. Non-migrated shungite is found directly stratigraphically above deposits that were formed in a shallow water carbonate shelf to non-marine evaporitic environment. The shungite bearing sequence is thought to have been deposited during active rifting, consistent with the alkaline volcanic rocks that are found within the sequence. The organic-rich sediments were probably deposited in a brackish lagoonal setting.
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One of his studies demonstrated that methane is, in fact, spontaneously formed at high-pressure and high-temperature environments such as those deep in the Earth's mantle; this finding is an exciting indication of abiogenic hydrocarbon formation, meaning that the actual amount of hydrocarbons available on Earth might be much larger than conventionally assumed under the assumption that all hydrocarbons are fossil fuels. His recent work also includes a collaboration with Steven Brams studying approval voting.
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The term dubiofossil is a portmanteau word used in geology and paleontology for a problematic structure that looks like a fossil but has an uncertain biologic origin. From Latin dubius, and English fossil, the word has been used mainly for remains found in rocks dating from the early history of the Earth (Precambrian rocks), but it is also applicable in other settings such as problematic microbe-like forms in meteorites. Although ultimately such structures are either biogenic (i.e., fossil) or abiogenic (i.e.
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On the basis of chemical composition and isotopic analysis, the Chimaera gas is said to be about half biogenic and half abiogenic gas, the largest emission of biogenic methane discovered; deep and pressurized gas accumulations necessary to sustain the gas flow for millennia, posited to be from an inorganic source, may be present. Local geology of Chimaera flames, at exact position of flames, reveals contact between serpentinized ophiolite and carbonate rocks. Fischer- Tropsch process can be suitable reaction to form hydrocarbon gases.
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Prof. Nikolai A. Kudryavtsev (1893-1971) Nikolai Alexandrovich Kudryavtsev (Opochka, October 21, 1893 – Leningrad, December 12, 1971) was a Soviet Russian petroleum geologist. He is the founding father of modern abiogenic theory for origin of petroleum, which states that some petroleum is formed from non-biological sources of hydrocarbons located deep in the Earth's crust and mantle. He graduated from Leningrad Mining Institute in 1922, obtained a Dr.Sc. in Geology and Mineralogy in 1936, and become professor in 1941. Kudryavtsev started his geological career in 1920 at the USSR Geological Committee.
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Georgi (Yuri) Yu. Boyko (, March 10, 1933, Boryslav, – July 19, 2002, Lviv) was a Ukrainian and Soviet petroleum geologist, one of the supporters and developers of the abiogenic petroleum origin hypothesis. Boyko graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic Institute in 1955 and received a Ph.D. in Geology and Mineralogy from Lviv University in 1963 and Dr.Sc. in Geology and Mineralogy from the Institute of Geology and Development of Fossil Fuels (IGIRGI), Moscow, in 1989. He published five monographs and about 150 research papers, and was a vice president of the Ukrainian Oil and Gas Academy.
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The "deep biotic petroleum hypothesis", similar to the abiogenic petroleum origin hypothesis, holds that not all petroleum deposits within the Earth's rocks can be explained purely according to the orthodox view of petroleum geology. Thomas Gold used the term the deep hot biosphere to describe the microbes which live underground. This hypothesis is different from biogenic oil in that the role of deep-dwelling microbes is a biological source for oil which is not of a sedimentary origin and is not sourced from surface carbon. Deep microbial life is only a contaminant of primordial hydrocarbons.
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It has also been suggested that BIFs may be biologic in origin. The range of their δ56/54Fe values fall within the range of those observed to occur as a result of biologic processes relating to bacterial metabolic processes, such as those of anoxygenic phototrophic iron- oxidizing bacteria. Ultimately, the improved understanding of BIFs using iron isotope fractionations would allow for the reconstruction of past environments and the constraint of processes occurring on the ancient Earth. However, given that the values observed as a result of biogenic and abiogenic fractionation are relatively similar, the exact processes of BIFs are still unclear.
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In accordance with theories about abiogenic petroleum (that hydrocarbons can be formed without involving material from dead plants and animals), astrophysicist Thomas Gold suggested that there might be major deposits of oil and natural gas in the area. Drilling was carried out in the late 1980s and early 1990s but proved inconclusive.Glasby (2006) Drilling for natural gas was resumed in the late 2000s and continues as of mid-2012. The scientific premise for prospecting of this sort is based on the work of physicist Vladimir Kutcherov, who is cooperating with Igrene, the company financing the drilling operations.
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Carbonate-associated sulfates (CAS) are sulfate species found in association with carbonate minerals, either as inclusions, adsorbed phases, or in distorted sites within the carbonate mineral lattice. It is derived primarily from dissolved sulfate in the solution from which the carbonate precipitates. In the ocean, the source of this sulfate is a combination of riverine and atmospheric inputs, as well as the products of marine hydrothermal reactions and biomass remineralisation. CAS is a common component of most carbonate rocks, having concentrations in the parts per thousand within biogenic carbonates and parts per million within abiogenic carbonates.
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On Mars, surface oxidants and UV radiation will have altered or destroyed organic molecules at or near the surface. One issue that may add ambiguity in such a search is the fact that, throughout Martian history, abiogenic organic-rich chondritic meteorites have undoubtedly rained upon the Martian surface. At the same time, strong oxidants in Martian soil along with exposure to ionizing radiation might alter or destroy molecular signatures from meteorites or organisms. An alternative approach would be to seek concentrations of buried crystalline minerals, such as clays and evaporites, which may protect organic matter from the destructive effects of ionizing radiation and strong oxidants.
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The Acasta orthogneisses of the Slave Craton, Canada, are regarded to be the oldest rocks on Earth, dated to 4.06 Ga, include protoliths such as TTGs, amphibolite, gabbro, granite, and diorite. It is possible that such early Hadean TTGs were a source of phosphorus for the first oceans and therefore contributed nutrients to the first abiogenic steps of life on Earth. No Hadean-aged zircon grains have been identified in the Nuvvuagittuq Supracrustal Belt in northern Quebec, but amphibolites have been dated to 4.28 Ga while 3.75 Ga-old banded iron formations indicate the minimum age of the belt. The Napier Mountains in Antarctica are of similar age.
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Abiogenic petroleum origin is a body of hypotheses which propose that petroleum and natural gas deposits are mostly formed by inorganic means, rather than by the decomposition of organisms. Thomas Gold's deep gas hypothesis states that some natural gas deposits were formed out of hydrocarbons deep in the earth's mantle. Theories explaining the origin of petroleum as abiotic, however, are generally not well accepted by the scientific community, and are rejected by most researchers and scientific theories on the subject. Earlier studies of mantle-derived rocks from many places have shown that hydrocarbons from the mantle region can be found widely around the globe.
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At the beginning of his 1992 paper The Deep Hot Biosphere, Thomas Gold referred to ocean vents in support of his theory that the lower levels of the earth are rich in living biological material that finds its way to the surface. He further expanded his ideas in the book The Deep Hot Biosphere. An article on abiogenic hydrocarbon production in the February 2008 issue of Science journal used data from experiments at the Lost City hydrothermal field to report how the abiotic synthesis of low molecular mass hydrocarbons from mantle derived carbon dioxide may occur in the presence of ultramafic rocks, water, and moderate amounts of heat.
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Corsi has also promoted the theory of abiogenic petroleum origin (as opposed to the scientifically accepted theory for the formation of petroleum from biological matter). In his book Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil, Corsi disputes the academic consensus that oil is fossil fuel and says that dinosaurs cannot turn into oil. The scientific consensus is that oil is not formed from dinosaurs, but from fossilized plant remains. Corsi says that the scientific views of petroleum formation are accepted, because it would be "disastrous — both to oil companies and to politicians in office" in terms of pricing to admit that oil is not a scarce commodity.
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In 1951, the Soviet geologist Nikolai Alexandrovitch Kudryavtsev proposed the modern abiotic hypothesis of petroleum. On the basis of his analysis of the Athabasca Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada, he concluded that no "source rocks" could form the enormous volume of hydrocarbons, and therefore offered abiotic deep petroleum as the most plausible explanation. (Humic coals have since been proposed for the source rocks.) Others who continued Kudryavtsev's work included Petr N. Kropotkin, Vladimir B. Porfir'ev, Emmanuil B. Chekaliuk, Vladilen A. Krayushkin, Georgi E. Boyko, Georgi I. Voitov, Grygori N. Dolenko, Iona V. Greenberg, Nikolai S. Beskrovny, and Victor F. Linetsky. Astronomer Thomas Gold was a prominent proponent of the abiogenic hypothesis in the West until his death in 2004.
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Since there were no known chemical pathways for the abiogenic synthesis of nucleotides from pyrimidine nucleobases cytosine and uracil under prebiotic conditions, it is thought by some that nucleic acids did not contain these nucleobases seen in life's nucleic acids. The nucleoside cytosine has a half-life in isolation of 19 days at and 17,000 years in freezing water, which some argue is too short on the geologic time scale for accumulation. Others have questioned whether ribose and other backbone sugars could be stable enough to find in the original genetic material, and have raised the issue that all ribose molecules would have had to be the same enantiomer, as any nucleotide of the wrong chirality acts as a chain terminator.
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An initial enantiomeric excess, such as can be produced by polarized light, then allows the more abundant enantiomer to outcompete the other. Clark has suggested that homochirality may have started in outer space, as the studies of the amino acids on the Murchison meteorite showed that L-alanine is more than twice as frequent as its D form, and L-glutamic acid was more than three times prevalent than its D counterpart. Various chiral crystal surfaces can also act as sites for possible concentration and assembly of chiral monomer units into macromolecules. Compounds found on meteorites suggest that the chirality of life derives from abiogenic synthesis, since amino acids from meteorites show a left-handed bias, whereas sugars show a predominantly right- handed bias, the same as found in living organisms.
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Tube worms feeding at base of a black smoker hydrothermal vent Gold first became interested in the origins of petroleum in the 1950s, postulating a theory on the abiogenic formation of fossil fuels. Gold engaged in thorough discussion on the matter with Fred Hoyle, who even included a chapter on "Gold's Pore Theory" in his 1955 book Frontiers in Astronomy.. In the late 1970s, just as the United States faced another major energy crisis, Gold resurrected his work on petroleum. In 1977, a research submarine near the Galapagos Islands discovered a number of thriving ecosystems down on the ocean floor, living alongside hydrothermal vents. Later expeditions found that these vents were host to a number of organisms, including giant tube worms and albino crabs, that survived off heat-loving chemosynthetic microbes.
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Some Archean rock formations show macroscopic similarity to modern microbial structures, leading to the inference that these structures represent evidence of ancient life, namely stromatolites. However, others regard these patterns as being due to natural material deposition or some other abiogenic mechanism. Scientists have argued for a biological origin of stromatolites due to the presence of organic globule clusters within the thin layers of the stromatolites, of aragonite nanocrystals (both features of current stromatolites), and because of the persistence of an inferred biological signal through changing environmental circumstances. Fossilized stromatolites in the Hoyt Limestone (Cambrian) exposed at Lester Park, near Saratoga Springs, New York Precambrian fossilized stromatolites in the Siyeh Formation, Glacier National Park Fossilized stromatolites (Pika Formation, middle Cambrian) near Helen Lake, Banff National Park, Canada Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of the first forms of life on earth.
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The Siljan Ring meteorite crater, Sweden, was proposed by Thomas Gold as the most likely place to test the hypothesis because it was one of the few places in the world where the granite basement was cracked sufficiently (by meteorite impact) to allow oil to seep up from the mantle; furthermore it is infilled with a relatively thin veneer of sediment, which was sufficient to trap any abiogenic oil, but was modelled as not having been subjected to the heat and pressure conditions (known as the "oil window") normally required to create biogenic oil. However, some geochemists concluded by geochemical analysis that the oil in the seeps came from the organic-rich Ordovician Tretaspis shale, where it was heated by the meteorite impact.Kathy Shirley, "Siljan project stays in cross fire", AAPG Explorer, January 1987, pp. 12–13. In 1986–1990 The Gravberg-1 borehole was drilled through the deepest rock in the Siljan Ring in which proponents had hoped to find hydrocarbon reservoirs.
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In fact, not only RNA and DNA, but many fundamental molecules of life (those common to all three domains of life) are also pigments that absorb in the UV-C, and many of these also have a chemical affinity to RNA and DNA. Nucleic acids may thus have acted as acceptor molecules to the UV-C photon excited antenna pigment donor molecules by providing an ultrafast channel for dissipation. Michaelian has shown using the formalism of non-linear irreversible thermodynamics that there would have existed during the Archean a thermodynamic imperative to the abiogenic UV-C photochemical synthesis and proliferation of these pigments over the entire Earth surface if they acted as catalysts to augment the dissipation of the solar photons. By the end of the Archean, with life-induced ozone dissipating UV-C light in the Earth's upper atmosphere, it would have become ever more improbable for a completely new life to emerge that did not rely on the complex metabolic pathways already existing since now the free energy in the photons arriving at Earth's surface would have been insufficient for direct breaking and remaking of covalent bonds.
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The faculty of ecological medicine"Факультет экологической медицины" prepares students to explore and assess the impact of biogenic and abiogenic environmental factors, on cells, tissues, organs and all body systems (cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, immune, etc.) from molecular to populational level. The students are provided with practical training, which exposes them to a wide range of methods to diagnose different pathologies, assess effectiveness of the treatment and correct after-effects (e.g. immunocorrection, immunoreactive samples screening), to search for pathologic markers of aggressive environment influence on human body and to master the whole range of modern clinical and diagnostic methods. Faculty students have good practical training not only in the well-equipped university laboratories but also on the base of clinics, in the institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, in clinical and scientific-research institutes of the Ministry of Healthcare and other organizations and establishments of health preventive and therapeutic profile. Ecological outlook of students is greatly formed by the complex bio-ecological summer educational training (1st year), conducted at the educational- scientific station «Volmа», at the base of the Central Botanic Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk Zoo, Loshitza and other parks, as well as natural biocenoses.
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