Andrew Yee
November 1st 04, 05:38 PM
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, U.K.
For more information, contact:
Tamsin Mather
Dept. Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EQ
Tel.: 01223 333400/333474
Fax.: 01223 333450
E-mail:
David Pyle
Dept. Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EQ
Tel.: 01223 333400/333380/333463
Fax.: 01223 333450
E-mail:
4 October 2004
Were volcanoes the crucible of life?
New research by scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham shows
that volcanoes produce large quantities of biologically available nitrogen.
Life on Earth needs nitrogen to survive, but little is known about how it became
available to the earliest organisms. The research suggests that volcanoes may
have fertilised the advent of life on the early Earth.
Although nitrogen makes up the majority of the air we breathe, our bodies are
unable to absorb it in this form. Before we can access the reservoir of
atmospheric nitrogen it must first be 'fixed' into forms (such as ammonia or
nitrogen oxides) that can be absorbed by the plants that we, or animals lower
down the food chain eat. This is called 'biologically-available' nitrogen. This
is why we put nitrogen-containing fertilisers on soils to increase their fertility.
Some bacteria and fungi have evolved the ability to fix nitrogen themselves and
these biological processes, along with mankind's activities (such as the burning
of fossil fuels) are the major sources of fixed nitrogen in present-day ecosystems.
But the question remains as to where the fixed nitrogen came from that enabled
life to evolve in the first place? Previously, lightning and asteroid impacts
have been suggested as the major fixed nitrogen sources in the Earth's
atmosphere of about three billion years ago; volcanism had not previously been
thought of as an important process.
New work published this month shows that the high temperatures associated with
volcanic activity might also have played an important role in helping to fix
nitrogen. Researchers Tamsin Mather and David Pyle from the University of
Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences measured the compositions of gases
above a hot lava lake at Masaya volcano in Nicaragua, and found that there were
higher levels of fixed nitrogen in the volcanic plume than in the surrounding air.
This shows that the heat from the volcano allows the nitrogen and oxygen in the
atmosphere to react together to form fixed nitrogen. From these measurements,
the researchers were able to estimate for the first time the rate at which
nitrogen could be fixed by volcanoes. Surprisingly, the results suggest that
volcanism may have been at least as important as lightning and asteroid impacts
in converting atmospheric nitrogen into a bio-available form in the earliest
Earth. This unexpected result asks new questions about the role of volcanism
during the evolution of a habitable planet.
Cambridge, U.K.
For more information, contact:
Tamsin Mather
Dept. Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EQ
Tel.: 01223 333400/333474
Fax.: 01223 333450
E-mail:
David Pyle
Dept. Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
Downing Street Cambridge CB2 3EQ
Tel.: 01223 333400/333380/333463
Fax.: 01223 333450
E-mail:
4 October 2004
Were volcanoes the crucible of life?
New research by scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham shows
that volcanoes produce large quantities of biologically available nitrogen.
Life on Earth needs nitrogen to survive, but little is known about how it became
available to the earliest organisms. The research suggests that volcanoes may
have fertilised the advent of life on the early Earth.
Although nitrogen makes up the majority of the air we breathe, our bodies are
unable to absorb it in this form. Before we can access the reservoir of
atmospheric nitrogen it must first be 'fixed' into forms (such as ammonia or
nitrogen oxides) that can be absorbed by the plants that we, or animals lower
down the food chain eat. This is called 'biologically-available' nitrogen. This
is why we put nitrogen-containing fertilisers on soils to increase their fertility.
Some bacteria and fungi have evolved the ability to fix nitrogen themselves and
these biological processes, along with mankind's activities (such as the burning
of fossil fuels) are the major sources of fixed nitrogen in present-day ecosystems.
But the question remains as to where the fixed nitrogen came from that enabled
life to evolve in the first place? Previously, lightning and asteroid impacts
have been suggested as the major fixed nitrogen sources in the Earth's
atmosphere of about three billion years ago; volcanism had not previously been
thought of as an important process.
New work published this month shows that the high temperatures associated with
volcanic activity might also have played an important role in helping to fix
nitrogen. Researchers Tamsin Mather and David Pyle from the University of
Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences measured the compositions of gases
above a hot lava lake at Masaya volcano in Nicaragua, and found that there were
higher levels of fixed nitrogen in the volcanic plume than in the surrounding air.
This shows that the heat from the volcano allows the nitrogen and oxygen in the
atmosphere to react together to form fixed nitrogen. From these measurements,
the researchers were able to estimate for the first time the rate at which
nitrogen could be fixed by volcanoes. Surprisingly, the results suggest that
volcanism may have been at least as important as lightning and asteroid impacts
in converting atmospheric nitrogen into a bio-available form in the earliest
Earth. This unexpected result asks new questions about the role of volcanism
during the evolution of a habitable planet.