From: Tracing early life on Mars: lessons from organics produced in high-altitude hotsprings of Ladakh
Parameters | Low-altitude hotsprings | High-altitude hotsprings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yellowstone National Park, USA (Clifton et al. 1990) | Urup Island and Uzon Caldera, Russia (Kompanichenko et al. 2016; Poturay and Kompanichenko 2019; Kompanichenko and Poturay 2022) | Calabria region, Italy (Di Gioia 2006) | Pannonian Basin, Hungary (Kárpáti et al. 1999) | Ourense, Spain (González-Barreiro et al. 2009) | Ladakh, India (this study) | |
Elevation | 2220 m | < 998 m | < 370 m | 400 m | 90–115 m | 3232–4375 m |
pH | 6–8 | 3–9 | NA | NA | 7.5–8.5 | 7–8 |
Temperature | 40°–80 °C | 50°–90 °C | NA | 50°–60 °C | 45°–66 °C | 50°–85 °C |
Total number of compounds | NA | 95 | 7 | 23 | 70 | 88 |
Major groups | Alkanes, aromatics, alcohols, and carboxylic acids | Alkanes, aromatics, ketones, alcohols, carboxylic acids | Alcohols | Aromatics | Aldehydes, esters, ketones | Alkane, esters, carboxylic acids, alcohols, alkenes |
Alkanes (%) | < 83 | < 41.8 | NA | < 0.4 | < 8.2 | < 7.6 |
Alcohols (%) | NA | < 29.4 | NA | < 18.3 | < 15.3 | < 13.8 |
Aldehydes (%) | NA | < 4.1 | NA | ND | < 3.2 | < 2.7 |
Carboxylic acids (%) | NA | < 18.9 | NA | < 21.9 | < 16.3 | < 10.1 |
Esters (%) | NA | ND | NA | ND | < 20.7 | < 54.2 |
Nitrogen-bearing compounds (%) | NA | ND | NA | ND | < 40.8 | < 32.3 |
Phosphorus-bearing compounds (%) | NA | ND | ND | ND | ND | < 4.6 |
Cmax (n-Alkane) | C23 | C11 | NA | NA | NA | C19 |
CPI (n-Alkane) | 1 | > 1 | > 1 | NA | NA | < 0.43 |
Number of bioactive compounds | Absent | 12 | Absent | Absent | 8 | 27 |
Proportion of bioactive compounds (%) | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | 38.5–98.1 |