The Aubrite-Archipelago Hypothesis

This paper presents a unified geochemical framework for the origin of life, proposing that the late accretion of reduced enstatite-rich meteorites onto Archean volcanic island archipelagos provided the necessary chemical feedstock to overcome fundamental thermodynamic barriers. The authors argue that current models fail to simultaneously solve the Water Paradox and the Phosphorus Problem, but that the specific mineralogy of these meteorites acts as a chemical factory to resolve both.The hypothesis details how the airburst fracturing of these meteorites exposes the minerals schreibersite and oldhamite to hydrothermal brines. The corrosion of schreibersite releases highly reactive phosphites to drive nucleotide synthesis, while oldhamite releases sulfides that provide UV shielding to solve the Tar Paradox and feedstock for chemical synthesis. Furthermore, the model posits that tidal wet-dry cycles within montmorillonite clay nanopores concentrate these precursors to drive polymerization, eventually leading to a critical Metabolic Handoff where protocells transition from finite meteoritic energy to renewable geological metabolism. Keywords Abiogenesis Aubrites Schreibersite Oldhamite Phosphorus Problem Water Paradox Tar Paradox Wet-Dry Cycling Montmorillonite Clay Cyanosulfidic Chemistry Metabolic Handoff Archean Volcanism