Latest Serpentinite Stories

According to a recent analysis, it appears that methane on Mars is produced and destroyed at a faster rate than on Earth.Researchers in Paris used a computer program that models the Martian planet to simulate observations made from Earth.The program showed that gas is unevenly distributed in Mars' atmosphere and fluctuates with the seasons.The presence of methane on Mars means its origin could have been geological activity, or possibly life.Franck Lefevre and Francois Forget from the...

Hydrocarbons "“ molecules critical to life "“ are being generated by the simple interaction of seawater with the rocks under the Lost City hydrothermal vent field in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Being able to produce building blocks of life makes Lost City-like vents even stronger contenders as places where life might have originated on Earth, according to Giora Proskurowski and Deborah Kelley, two authors of a paper in the Feb. 1 Science. Researchers have ruled out carbon from the biosphere...

On Earth, methane is mostly produced by life. The recent detection of methane in the martian atmosphere therefore has given rise to much speculation about the possibility for life on the Red Planet. In part two of this four-part series, the various ways nature produces methane are considered. Astrobiology Magazine -- In trying to understand the Mars-shaking news about methane on the Red Planet, astrobiologists look, as usual, to the home planet for instruction. The 1700 parts per billion...