Re: OOL II - Building Blocks


"Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t"; <rem642b@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:d3fj0o$19vg$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > From: "Perplexed in Peoria" <jimmenegay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > Somebody cited one million years as the halflife of a random molecule
> > > before volcanic activity decomposes it.
> > Huh? That surprises me.
>
> Sorry, I mis-remembered it. It was ten million years as the time it
> takes for the entire ocean to be passed through the undersea geothermal
> vent system which reduces most complex hydrocarbons to "inorganic"
> hydrocarbons. [snip]

Right. No problem. I misremembered my numbers too.

> > Your typical random molecule runs a greater risk of being struck by
> > lightning than of being decomposed by a volcano ;-) I've heard a
> > figure of 200 million years as the half-life of oceanic crust.

And I misspoke. I think that 80 million is closer to the truth. So
the question becomes: Are the molecules we are interested in dissolved,
or are they adsorbed to the oceanic crust? Since, IIRC, it was YOUR
soup molecules that we were discussing, the ten million year figure is
the one we want.

For a theory like mine, in which the ocean is a "sewer", the vent system
serves as a sewage treatment plant. I wish it could destroy organics
even faster!


.