Abstract
Replying to Sherwood Lollar and McCollom
Sherwood Lollar and McCollom1 suggest that abiotic reactions, in particular those catalysed by Fe–Ni alloys, might be responsible for the methane recorded in our fluid inclusions2. They point out that 13C in methane that is produced abiotically can be substantially depleted under field and laboratory conditions. However, native metal catalysis would not only have been implausible in the sulphidic environment of the basalt-hosted Dresser hydrothermal system, but it would also have been inconsistent with the isotopic fractionation between CH4 and CO2 that we note in the primary fluid2.
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Ueno, Y., Yamada, K., Yoshida, N. et al. Biosignatures and abiotic constraints on early life (Reply). Nature 444, E18–E19 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05500
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05500
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