Self-Shielding Enhanced Organics Synthesis in an Early Reduced Earth's Atmosphere

TL;DR

This study demonstrates through numerical analysis that UV absorption by hydrocarbons in early Earth's atmosphere could have significantly enhanced organic molecule formation, providing a potential pathway for prebiotic chemistry on primordial Earth.

Contribution

The paper introduces a model showing how gaseous hydrocarbons suppress water photolysis, leading to increased organic synthesis in Earth's early reduced atmosphere.

Findings

Nearly half of initial CH4 converted to organics

Deposition of prebiotic molecules like HCN and H2CO

Organic-rich soup potentially led to life's emergence

Abstract

Earth is expected to have acquired a reduced proto-atmosphere enriched in H2 and CH4 through the accretion of building blocks that contain metallic Fe and/or the gravitational trapping of surrounding nebula gas. Such an early, wet, reduced atmosphere that covers a proto-ocean would then ultimately evolve toward oxidized chemical compositions through photochemical processes that involve reactions with H2O-derived oxidant radicals and the selective escape of hydrogen to space. During this time, atmospheric CH4 could be photochemically reprocessed to generate not only C-bearing oxides but also organics. However, the branching ratio between organic matter formation and oxidation remains unknown despite its significance on the abiotic chemical evolution of early Earth. Here, we show via numerical analyses that UV absorptions by gaseous hydrocarbons such as C2H2 and C3H4 significantly suppress H2O photolysis subsequent CH4 oxidation during the photochemical evolution of a wet proto-atmosphere enriched in H2 and CH4. As a result, nearly half of the initial CH4 converted to heavier organics along with the deposition of prebiotically essential molecules such as HCN and H2CO on the surface of a primordial ocean for a geological timescale order of 10-100 Myr. Our results suggest that the accumulation of organics and prebiotically important molecules in the proto-ocean could produce a soup enriched in various organics, which might have eventually led to the emergence of living organisms.