A new review led by a research team from Rutgers University in the United States points out that the origin of life on Earth may not only be rooted in the traditional "cradle" of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The high-temperature mineral-bearing environment formed by the impact of asteroids or meteorites may also provide a key stage for the chemistry of early life.
Shea Cinquemani, the first author of the paper, said in an interview: "From a scientific perspective, we still don't know how the early Earth, which had no life, produced the first batch of life. How did this step happen out of nothing?" Cinquemani graduated from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University in 2025 with a bachelor's degree in marine biology and fisheries management. This work was also a "leapfrog" scientific research attempt she completed during her undergraduate period.
A related review paper was published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, which focused on sorting out the geological environments where life may have been born, with a particular focus on hydrothermal systems—places where high-temperature, mineral-rich fluids circulate in rocks and eventually gush out, forming significant energy gradients and diverse chemical conditions, thereby driving complex reactions. In addition to traditional deep-sea hydrothermal vents, the article turns its attention to hydrothermal systems formed by meteorite impacts, believing that this type of environment may have been very common in the early Earth, but has been ignored for a long time.
The paper was co-signed by Sinquemani and Rutgers University oceanographer Richard Lutz. For an undergraduate student, leading the review as the first author was described by his supervisor as a "highly unusual achievement." Lutz said: "It is not uncommon for undergraduates to participate in papers, and teachers often invite outstanding students to join projects. But publishing such a paper with an undergraduate as the first author has a completely different meaning." At first, this work was just a class assignment for Cinquemani in the "Oceanic Hydrothermal Vents" course. The topic required her to think: If similar hydrothermal systems exist on other planets, are they capable of nurturing life?
Sinquemani admitted that when he first received the assignment, he had “almost no idea.” "Thinking about the origin of life on another planet feels very surreal. I was originally more familiar with pure biology, but this topic brought me into chemistry, physics and even geology." After graduation, she expanded her class assignment into a more systematic review, comparing the hydrothermal system formed by the impact with deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The paper was finally accepted after five rounds of rigorous review and 15 pages of opinions.
Since their discovery in the late 1970s, deep-sea hydrothermal vents have been a "hot candidate" in the study of the origin of life. This environment requires no sunlight to support an entire ecosystem, and microorganisms rely on chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide for energy, surviving through chemical synthesis rather than photosynthesis. The heat source of hydrothermal systems can come from volcanic activity within the earth's crust or from chemical reactions between water and rocks. Even without magma, local warm "oasis" can be formed in the cold deep sea.
Cinquemani's work continues this traditional research framework and emphasizes the potential role of impact-driven hydrothermal systems in the origin of life. When a large meteorite hits the Earth, the huge kinetic energy is instantly converted into high temperatures, causing the surrounding rocks to melt. The impact crater then accumulated water during the cooling process, forming a special environment with an extremely warm central area and surrounded by water. Hot water and minerals are continuously exchanged, forming a system similar to deep-sea hydrothermal vents. "You get a high-temperature core surrounded by lake water, which creates a hydrothermal system similar to the deep ocean, but the heat source comes from impacts rather than volcanoes," Cinquemani said.
To assess the true evolution of such environments and their potential to support the chemistry of life, the paper reviewed three typical crater cases from different periods: the Chicxulub impact crater in Mexico, which was formed about 65 million years ago and is related to the dinosaur extinction event; the Haughton impact crater in the Canadian Arctic, which was formed about 31 million years ago; and Lonar Lake in India, which was formed about 50,000 years ago and still exists as a lake. The hydrothermal systems formed by these impacts can remain active for thousands to tens of thousands of years, providing a time window for simple molecules to gradually evolve into more complex organic structures.
Researchers believe that in the early Earth when meteorites and comets frequently visited, this type of impact-driven hydrothermal environment may have been far more common than today, and therefore may have played an underestimated role in the birth of life - those celestial impact events that are often regarded as "catastrophic" may also have built the chemical laboratories needed for the start of life. This idea continues decades of accumulation of deep-sea hydrothermal vent theory and expands possible scenarios for the origin of life from the deep sea to lakes and underground systems in impact craters.
Lutz himself was one of the early pioneers in the study of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. During his postdoctoral period, he dived more than a mile below the sea surface aboard the Alvin submersible and witnessed prosperous ecosystems in total darkness. These voyages are considered to have created a new field of research and refreshed the scientific community's understanding of "life can exist without sunlight." "We've been discussing for years the possibility that life might have been born in deep-sea hydrothermal vents," Lutz said.
This review by Cinquemani, while integrating existing deep-sea evidence, also introduces more and more recent results on impact-driven hydrothermal systems, arguing that both types of environments have the potential to support key chemical reactions in the initial stages of life. This change in perspective is not only related to the history of the Earth itself, but also points to the exploration of extraterrestrial life: The scientific community speculates that there may be active hydrothermal activity under the icy moons such as Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, and similar environments may have been nurtured in the early impact craters of Mars. If hydrothermal fluids and impact systems on Earth can indeed "preheat" life, they may also provide important clues and target areas for future searches for extraterrestrial life.
For Sinquemani himself, this research stems more from a common human curiosity. She is currently working as a technician at Rutgers University's Aquaculture Innovation Center in Cape May, New Jersey, where she is engaged in aquaculture-related scientific research while preparing for further studies in marine science. "Human curiosity is almost endless," she said. "We will continue to ask questions and try to trace the origin of everything. Maybe we will never be able to accurately restore the moment when life was born, but we can get as close as possible to understand how things might have happened."