ABIOTIC SYNTHESIS OF ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF SUBMARINE HYDROTHERMAL SYSTEMS - A PERSPECTIVE

Deep-sea hydrothermal systems have been proposed to be likely environm ents for chemical evolution and the origin of life on Earth. Recently, experiments have, therefore, been carried out in order to test the hy pothesis that amino acids can be synthesized under conditions represen ting hydrothermally altered oceanic crust. The variety of amino acids that have been detected in such experiments corresponds roughly to tha t reported previously for electric sparking in reducing gas mixtures. The relative yields of the protein amino acids detected are significan tly higher than in electric spark discharge experiments, and the overa ll yields are about an order of magnitude higher. The amino acids are all racemic.