Earth Wax, Iron, and Magnetism: Abiotic Ozokerite Wax Formation from Meteorites and a Forgotten Pathway to Life

This paper explores the abiotic origins and potential prebiotic significance of ozokerite-like earth waxes, integrating geological, meteoritic, and chemical evidence into a unified framework. It advances two closely linked ideas: first, that petroleum-like oils and waxy hydrocarbons resembling natural ozokerite can form abiotically from carbonaceous meteorite material under realistic thermal and pressure conditions; and second, that such waxy hydrocarbon deposits on early Earth may have served as overlooked interfaces for prebiotic chemistry. Drawing on laboratory studies of hydrothermal alteration, thermal cracking, and Fischer–Tropsch-type synthesis, the paper shows that complex hydrocarbons—including viscous oils and higher alkanes capable of solidifying into waxes—can arise without biological input from interstellar or solar-nebula-derived organic matter. These results align with well-documented properties of carbonaceous chondrites, which contain amino acids, water, iron-nickel catalysts, and macromolecular carbon formed in space. Building on this abiotic foundation, the paper proposes that natural ozokerite deposits along ancient tidal shorelines could have functioned as low-energy chemical scaffolds. Rich in hydrocarbons and capable of trapping gases, concentrating organics, and accumulating iron, such waxy matrices may have created semi-insulated microenvironments conducive to molecular orientation, repeated reaction cycles, and early protein-like folding. Tidal motion, solar heating, cooling cycles, and ambient geomagnetic fields are considered as gentle organizing forces rather than high-energy drivers. Rather than challenging established origin-of-life models, this work adds a missing interface to prebiotic chemistry: a semi-solid, carbon-rich, magnetically and chemically active medium bridging water, minerals, and extraterrestrial organics. By uniting abiotic hydrocarbon synthesis with a geologically plausible Earth setting, the paper highlights ozokerite-like waxes as a neglected but potentially important component in the transition from chemistry to biology .