Amazing stuff! You wonder why this obvious explanation took so long!
I suspect the article got it a little bit wrong about focusing on "small", "highly alkaline soda lakes". It seems more plausible that there was generally much more volcanic activity across many areas affecting any bodies of water.
"Be they microbes or monkeys, organisms require phosphorus—and lots of it. It’s a key component of DNA and RNA, of the adenosine triphosphate that fuels living cells, and of the lipids that make up cell membranes. The element’s centrality has long puzzled researchers trying to understand early life, because phosphorus isn’t naturally abundant in most watery environments, where life probably began.
Researchers have grappled for decades with what they’ve called the “phosphorus problem,” knowing that the origin of life would likely have required high concentrations of compounds such as phosphate—a phosphorus atom surrounded by four oxygens. In oceans, rivers, and most lakes the phosphate concentration is typically 10,000 times too low.
Now, a trio of new papers supports a recent proposal that volcanic activity around highly alkaline “soda” lakes—and perhaps hot springs— could have enabled phosphorus compounds to accumulate to levels needed for life to start and spread.
Phosphorus is present in volcanic lavas, and the young Earth had a lot more volcanic activity than today. The new reports suggest that volcanic activity in and around lakes may have produced abundant phosphates and allowed them to concentrate enough in small soda lakes to promote vital biochemical reactions. Similar processes around larger soda lakes may have provided a more stable supply of phosphates that allowed early life to thrive and spread. ..."
P.S. I ignored the three scientific articles mentioned in this article.
Unusual ‘soda lakes’ may have kick-started life on Earth by concentrating key compounds "Phosphorus leached from volcanic rocks in warm waters could have triggered reactions needed to launch biochemistry"
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