The geological setting of the earliest life forms

Abstract

Life on Earth may have begun about 4×109 years (4 Ga) ago. Plate tectonics probably operated in the early Archaean, with rapid spreading at mid-ocean ridges, a komatiitic (magnesium-rich) oceanic crust, active volcanic arcs and the development of extensional basins on continental crust. Shallow water environments would have been more restricted and probably shorter-lived than in later geological times; however, extensive shallow seas existed in the later phases of the development of extensional basins. Bacterial communities-presumably photosynthetic-have probably existed in such shallow-water settings and probably at shallow depths in the oceans for at least 3.5 Ga. Because the mid-ocean ridges were probably subaqueous, hydrothermal systems would have been very vigorous and would have offered suitable habitats for early chemo-autotrophic bacterial communities. Early life forms probably also occupied vesicles in lavas, pumice and volcanic breccias, and pores in soft sediments, living in the constant flux of fluid flushing through permeable strata. Other, similar habitats would have existed in volcanic island arcs and in extensional basins.