Canada's Last Chance Lake Has Clues To Origin of Life On Earth: Study

A lake in Canada holds clues to the origin of life on Earth, a new study has claimed. Some scientists claim that life emerged in volcanic landscapes, surrounded by a precise blend of chemicals and physical conditions. This was the likely setting around four billion years ago, and the study by David Catling and his colleagues offers new support for the idea. They studied the Last Chance Lake - a shallow, salty body of water situated on a volcanic plateau in Canada's British Columbia.

The researchers said that the lake holds clues that carbonate-rich lakes in ancient Earth could have been a "cradle of life". The study has been published in journal Nature on January 9.

"We were able to look for the specific conditions that people use to synthesise the building blocks of life in nature. We think that we have a very promising place for the origin of life," said Mr Catling, a University of Washington professor of geosciences.

They were drawn towards the lake after studying a 1990s unpublished master's thesis that had recorded unusually high levels of phosphate there.

Last Chance is a shallow water body, not more than one foot deep. It is located on a volcanic plateau over 1,000 metres above sea level. The lake has the highest levels of concentrated phosphate ever recorded in any natural body of water on Earth. It is more than 1,000 times more than what is typical for oceans or lakes, CNN quoted Sebastian Haas, a postdoctoral researcher studying the microbiology and chemistry of aquatic environments at the University of Washington as saying. He is the lead author of the paper.

Phosphate is a critical component of biological molecules and contains life-sustaining element phosphorous. It is found in molecules such as RNA and DNA.

The water samples were collected from the lake between 2021 and 2022. An analysis revealed that apart from phosphate, the water also contained the mineral dolomite.

The compounding chemical processes, influenced by minerals from the volcanic rock that the lake formed upon, as well as an arid climate, effectively produced the unique concentrations of phosphate - a set of conditions that researchers believe could have once led to the emergence of life on Earth, according to Mr Haas.