CompuServe Messages

Hi, Bob and Mike– While the rarity of pre-Cambrian oil and the chirality argument leave me mainly convinced petroleum is biological in origin, I cannot resist tossing in a stink bomb: carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, presumably the stuff of which the Earth was originally made, contain "organic matter in the form of complicated and very large molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Such organic material occurs as rings (aromatic hydrocarbons), straight, or slightly branching chains (alkanes), and carboxylic and amino acids", according to "The Meteorite & Tektite Collector's Handbook" by Philip Bagnall. Nucleotides have recently been found in one of these meteorites; fragments of this Murchison meteorite are actually smelly in an organic way. This stuff was likely available as Earth formed, though I find it hard to imagine much of the organic substances surviving the magma ocean I understand covered the young Earth. Later meteorites would supply insufficient quantities to explain petroleum deposits, I assume, though they add an interesting option to theories on how life started. –Doug