ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH: SELF-ORGANIZING VESICLE-LIKE STRUCTURES IN CORDIERITE-ROCKS FROM SOTO (ARGENTINA)

Year, pages: 1997, 3 - 10

At Orcoyana, in the Soto region (Argentina), two types of cordieritic rocks outcrop: a light variety and a dark variety. Both of these contain, in very different quantities, very peculiar structures considered in literature as porphyroblasts. In order to gain insight into their origin, a petrologic and geochemical study was carried out. In the light of the new ordering principle, called "order through fluctuation", we applied the basic principles of self-organization dynamics to the Argentine structures. They appear to have "self-organized" as colloidal dissipative structures which formed in a self-organizing basic fluid. According to us, the origin of the Argentine structures involved a phase separation process ensuing from spontaneous density fluctuations in critical conditions. As the phase separation proceeded the fluid comprised immiscible portions in a state of emulsion. When the segregated phase was very concentrated, the Argentine fluid exhibited three distinguishable phases. From a thermodynamic point of view, there was a three-phase system, like a vesicle, with an interior, barrier and exterior.

Lucido, G. 1997. ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH: SELF-ORGANIZING VESICLE-LIKE STRUCTURES IN CORDIERITE-ROCKS FROM SOTO (ARGENTINA). In Geologica Carpathica, vol. 48, no.1, pp. 3-10. 1335-0552.

Lucido, G. (1997). ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH: SELF-ORGANIZING VESICLE-LIKE STRUCTURES IN CORDIERITE-ROCKS FROM SOTO (ARGENTINA). Geologica Carpathica, 48(1), 3-10. 1335-0552.