The Role of Shock Waves in the Chemical Evolution of Earth’s Primitive Atmosphere

Abstract

Oparin and Haldane’s extension into the prebiological era of Darwin’s concepts on evolution have given us all a new insight into the complex phenomena of life on Earth, and opened new horizons for a search for life elsewhere (1,2). Recently, we have witnessed the merging of the disciplines of both theory on the origin of life and mankind’s technical capability of evaluating it, by searching for life on other planets. Thus, the contribution of Oparin and Haldane to the field of prebiological evolution cannot be overestimated. The cornerstone of the Oparin-Haldane theory is the reducing character of Earth’s primitive atmosphere, in which the primary chemical processes took place. To date, despite the enormous progress in the field of synthesis of complex compounds in a reducing atmosphere (25), relatively little is known about the dynamics of the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere. The often used assumption of a state of thermodynamic equilibrium throughout the atmosphere’s evolutionary track (30), is not fully justified for a system with a continuous influx of material and energy. Instead, a dynamic approach should be adopted, taking into account the rate of exhalation from the interior of the planet and the effects of the various sources of energy.