i take it youve never heard of watermellon snow? http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plaug98.htm
On 11/28/06, Jones Beene <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "leaking pen" > why WOULDNT have early aneaorbic life had oxygen as a waste > product? pretty simple really -- they cannot live on the surface of ice. The ice surface, then as now, is inhospitable to chlorophyl based plants or algae and the ice was so thick that the tiny amounds of O2 which they did make was 'de minimis.' > chlorophyl based plants do, and the compounds involved in > photosynthesis have been shown to occur naturally under certain > conditions. Again, on an ice covered planet there is simply no place for chlorophyll based plants or single celled organisms to flourish, so the O2 content of air was small until the glaciers started to melt and the HOOH process ensued. Once there was open ocean, then chlorophyll based life could thrive, but not before that time - nada. Perhaps Richard is correct that the reason the ice began to melt at all was related the thermodynamics of a hot core. That core could have been heated-up by several possible methods - including the possibility that earth had a small second moon ... at one time.
-- That which yields isn't always weak.
