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. 1994 Feb 15;91(4):1248–1250. doi: 10.1073/pnas.91.4.1248

Impact melting of frozen oceans on the early Earth: Implications for the origin of life

J L Bada *, C Bigham *, S L Miller †
PMCID: PMC43134  PMID: 11539550

Abstract

Without sufficient greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the early Earth would have become a permanently frozen planet because the young Sun was less luminous than it is today. Several resolutions to this faint young Sun-frozen Earth paradox have been proposed, with an atmosphere rich in CO2 being the one generally favored. However, these models assume that there were no mechanisms for melting a once frozen ocean. Here we show that bolide impacts between about 3.6 and 4.0 billion years ago could have episodically melted an ice-covered early ocean. Thaw-freeze cycles associated with bolide impacts could have been important for the initiation of abiotic reactions that gave rise to the first living organisms.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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