How to Detect Organic Life From the Hadean

Possible Biosphere-Lithosphere Interactions Preserved in Igneous Zircon and Implications for Hadean Earth

Authors:

Dustin et al

Abstract:

Granitoids are silicic rocks that make up the majority of the continental crust, but different models arise for the origins of these rocks. One classification scheme defines different granitoid types on the basis of materials involved in the melting/crystallization process. In this end-member case, granitoids may be derived from melting of a preexisting igneous rock, while other granitoids, by contrast, are formed or influenced by melting of buried sedimentary material. In the latter case, assimilated sedimentary material altered by chemical processes occurring at the near surface of Earth—including biological activity—could influence magma chemical properties. Here, we apply a redox-sensitive calibration based on the incorporation of Ce into zircon crystals found in these two rock types, termed sedimentary-type (S-type) and igneous-type (I-type) granitoids. The ∼400 Ma Lachlan Fold Belt rocks of southeastern Australia were chosen for investigation here; these rocks have been a key target used to describe and explore granitoid genesis for close to 50 years. We observe that zircons found in S-type granitoids formed under more reducing conditions than those formed from I-type granitoids from the same terrain. This observation, while reflecting 9 granitoids and 289 analyses of zircons from a region where over 400 different plutons have been identified, is consistent with the incorporation of (reduced) organic matter in the former and highlights one possible manner in which life may modify the composition of igneous minerals. The chemical properties of rocks or igneous minerals may extend the search for ancient biological activity to the earliest period of known igneous activity, which dates back to ∼4.4 billion years ago. If organic matter was incorporated into Hadean sediments that were buried and melted, then these biological remnants could imprint a chemical signature within the subsequent melt and the resulting crystal assemblage, including zircon.