How The Rise Of Continents May Have Set The Stage For Life On Earth - Astrobiology

Continent formation may have set the stage for life on Earth

Long before forests, fish, or even single cells, Earth may have needed something as unglamorous as growing continents to make life possible. A study in Terra Nova argues that the planet’s earliest continental crust did more than reshape the surface. In addition, it may have acted as a chemical regulator, drawing down dangerously high levels of boron from ancient oceans. Eventually, this helped create conditions that favored the chemistry behind …

How The Rise Of Continents May Have Set The Stage For Life On Earth - Astrobiology

Earth’s earliest continents may have set the chemical stage for life by regulating boron levels in ancient oceans, a new study in Terra Nova suggests. Scientists have long proposed that boron helps stabilize the fragile sugars needed to build RNA—the molecule thought to have preceded DNA in early life—making it an essential ingredient in life’s […] The post How The Rise Of Continents May Have Set The Stage For Life On Earth appeared first on Ast…