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At the top of a mountain in southwestern Turkey, the ground spits fire. Known as Flames of Chimaera, they burned for millennia.
The local myth has long argued that these fires were the breath of a monster – a goat party, a snake party and a lion party. Today, we know that the fuel of this fiery mountain is the gas that escapes from the depths of the earth. But this does not come from the decomposition of ancient plants, algae or animal life, such as fossil fuels. Instead, this gas comes from a chemical reaction inside the rocks. And a series of studies published by a group of international scientists known as the Deep Carbon Observatory shows that this source of gas is more prevalent on our planet than it was previously known.
"We have discovered these unusual types of methane in a very large number of sites. This is not a rare phenomenon, "said Giuseppe Etiope, a member of the group who helped discover the cause of Chimaera's flames in 2014.
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Over the past decade, the observatory community of scientists has discovered hundreds of gas fields in more than 20 countries and several sites at the bottom of the sea that resemble Chimaera Flames. And they learned that the recipe for these gas emissions is much more complex than expected.
"We now understand better the different ways of producing methane on Earth. It's not just the organic diet as we know it, "he said. Bénédicte Menez, geomicrobiologist at the Institute of Earth Physics in Paris.
Abiotic methane, as it is called, does not cause decay of plants, animals or algae trapped in sedimentary rocks, such as biotic methane. The chemical reactions that produce these gases involve water and rocks, sometimes miles away from the surface of the Earth.
For years, researchers at Deep Carbon Observatory have collected and analyzed gas samples from hundreds of sites. And by using special tools to determine the source of methane, they discovered the basic recipe of the Earth: take hydrogen from water. Mix with inorganic carbon from minerals or gases. Add another mineral rich in metals to start the process, and that's it: abiotic methane.
Hydrogen often comes from serpentinization, when the water usually flows through the mantle rocks. But the recipe varies. Different sites may use different minerals or carbon atoms from their environment: Hydrogen can come from friction or from radiolysis instead of serpentinization. Temperatures can range from less than 250 degrees Fahrenheit, which can still withstand life at around 900 degrees Fahrenheit, which is impossible.
For example, the Chimaera fires resulted from limestone rich in carbon dioxide, or calcium carbonate and serpentinized rocks rich in hydrogen, which were sprayed with rainwater.
On the other hand, in the ocean, on sites like Hydrothermal vent field of the lost city, most of the methane was formed under the higher temperatures produced by the exposure and serpentinization of mantle rocks formerly buried by the traffic of the city. sea water.
In each case we see chemosynthesis – the deep terrestrial version of photosynthesis. Only its energy comes from a chemical reaction, not from the sun. Both processes transform inorganic molecules into organic products that life can use, the basis of all ecosystems on the planet.
In some cases, chemosynthesis also produces amino acids, constituents of life.
With new tools designed to study the basement of the Earth, researchers can determine whether methane came from rocks of old or lifeless life. In doing so, they also reveal secrets about how life may have emerged on this planet – and about the possibility of living elsewhere, such as in the interior of Mars or on the ocean floor of Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus.
Scientists like Menez think that chemosynthesis preceded photosynthesis and allowed the emergence of microbes that feed and produce methane. "We know that life is not born of nothing," she said. And finding a parallel in the way live microbes and lifeless chemical reactions produce methane, microbes can also contain clues about their origin. At the beginning of Earth's history, "life may have imitated natural geological processes," she said.
In the future, researchers hope to know how much of this methane is available and where it is stored.
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