Origins 2011 – Abstracts
For registered participants only: more information (and extended abstracts of presentations) is available online in your Origins 2011 ConfTool account (after login follow link "browse conference agenda").
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L3a: Invited Lecture – Early Earth processes
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| Session Abstract | ||
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The session timespan includes a 15-min introduction by the session Chair. | ||
| Presentations | ||
The early Archaean biosphere, the invention of photosynthesis and the destruction of the prebiotic environment Nordic Center for Earth Evolution, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Life on Earth must be considerably older than 3700 Ma. Already during the Archean, photosynthetic organisms significantly altered their environment, so the oldest known sedimentary rocks formed in environments that were strongly influenced by metabolic interaction with the geochemical cycles. Therefore these rocks shed little light on primitive Earth’s conditions during emergence and early evolution of Life. Theoretical geochemistry thus remains the most reliable tool for this type of research. |