New computer models indicate that ancient asteroid strikes created vast underground hydrothermal systems on early Earth. These environments could have supported the chemical processes needed for life to begin. Researchers from the Southwest Research Institute led the study.
Scientists modeled the effects of repeated high-speed collisions during Earth's first billion years. The impacts fractured the crust, allowing hot water to circulate and form long-lasting systems similar to those at Yellowstone today.
A single large strike could have produced up to 100 times the hydrothermal activity seen in the modern Yellowstone region. The models show the upper eight kilometers of crust remained highly permeable from 4.3 billion to 3.5 billion years ago.
"This modeling is both novel and crucial for understanding the earliest environments life may have emerged from," said Amanda Alexander, the study's first author.
The findings appear in the journal AGU Advances. Further work is planned to refine estimates of how these systems influenced prebiotic chemistry.