Scientists Find Evidence that Volcanic Lakes Could Be the Birthplace of Life
Introduction
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Barren Volcanic Landscape Holds Clues to the Origin of Life
Scattered Pools of Chemicals on Ancient Earth
Imagine an entirely barren world. Before you is a volcanic landscape, devoid of flora and fauna. Scattered throughout this gray and black expanse are shallow bodies of water. In each of these natural pools brews a precise blend of chemicals and physical conditions that could serve as the source of life on our planet.
New Study Supports the Theory of Volcanic Lakes as the Cradle of Life
Some scientists have theorized the scene might have looked much like this, rather than an ocean setting, when life first emerged on Earth roughly 4 billion years ago, and a study centered around a present-day lake in the Canadian province of British Columbia offers new support for that idea.
Discovery of “Last Chance Lake” Holds New Insights
Carbonate-Rich Lakes as Potential “Cradle of Life”
The shallow, salty body of water situated on volcanic rock — known as Last Chance Lake — holds clues that carbonate-rich lakes in ancient Earth could have been a “cradle of life,” according to study coauthor David Catling, a University of Washington professor of geosciences. The finding, published in the journal Nature on January 9, could advance scientific understanding of how life began.
Uncovering the Importance of Last Chance Lake
Catling and his colleagues first became aware of the lake as a place to focus their research after a literature review unearthed an unpublished master’s thesis from the 1990s that had recorded unusually high levels of phosphate there. But the researchers had to see it for themselves.
Last Chance Lake and its Extraordinary Conditions
Last Chance Lake is no more than 1 foot deep. Located on a volcanic plateau in British Columbia over 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) above sea level, it contains the highest levels of concentrated phosphate ever recorded in any natural body of water on Earth.
Phosphate as a Life-Sustaining Element
A critical component of biological molecules, phosphate is a chemical compound that contains the life-sustaining element phosphorus. It’s found in molecules such as RNA and DNA as well as ATP, a molecule necessary for energy production in all life forms. The abundance of phosphate at Last Chance Lake is more than 1,000 times more than what is typical for oceans or lakes, according to Sebastian Haas, a postdoctoral researcher studying the microbiology and chemistry of aquatic environments at the University of Washington who led the paper.
Last Chance Lake in the Context of Life’s Origins
Between 2021 and 2022, the team of researchers visited Last Chance Lake to collect and analyze water and sediment samples. That’s when they discovered that Last Chance Lake isn’t just a hotbed for phosphate but also the mineral dolomite, which allows phosphorus to build up in this environment and had formed in response to a reaction in the lake between calcium, magnesium and carbonate. The compounding chemical processes, influenced by minerals from the volcanic rock that the lake formed upon, as well as an arid climate, effectively produced the unique concentrations of phosphate — a set of conditions that researchers believe could have once led to the emergence of life on Earth, according to Haas.
New Insights into the Origin of Life
Implications for the Warm Little Pond Hypothesis
Bodies of water such as Last Chance Lake have long been on scientists’ radar as potential sources of primordial life. In the 1800s, Charles Darwin first wrote about his “warm little pond” theory, which proposed that warm, shallow, phosphate-rich lakes could have been where the first molecules of life formed.
Adding Credibility to the Warm Little Pond Hypothesis
The new study adds to the body of evidence that supports the warm little pond hypothesis, according to Alexander Johnson, a geobiologist at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the research. Johnson suggested that this finding could support the idea that similar conditions might exist on other rocky planets such as Mars, which could have also been potential birthplaces of life.
Exploring the Extent of Last Chance Lake’s Discovery
Implications for the Search for Life Beyond Earth
If life really did emerge in such volcanic lakes on land, this knowledge could theoretically help in the search for evidence of life beyond Earth. Haas suggested that it could lead researchers to consider places like the subglacial ocean on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter, as well as planets like Mars, as potential sites for the origins of life.
Paving the Way for Insights into Life’s Origins
While the study of Last Chance Lake doesn’t provide all the answers to the question of where life originated, it offers valuable insights into the mechanisms that may have enabled life to establish on Earth. Moreover, it highlights the significance of studying similar environments on Earth’s surface to better understand the possibilities of life on other planets or moons within our solar system.
