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Science 26 January 1968:
Vol. 159. no. 3813, pp. 423 - 425
DOI: 10.1126/science.159.3813.423
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Articles

Ammonium Ion Concentration in the Primitive Ocean

Jeffrey L. Bada 1 and Stanley L. Miller 1

1 Department of Chemistry, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla 92037

If ion exchange on clay minerals regulated the cationts in the primitive ocean as it does in the present ocean, the pH would have been 8 and the K+ concentration 0.01M. Since NH4+ and K+ are similar in their claymineral equilibria, the maximum NH4 + concentration in the primitive ocean would also have been 0.01M. An estimate of the minimum NH4+ concentratin is 1 x 10-3M, based on the reversible deamination of aspartic acid and the assumption that aspartic acid is necessary for the origin of life. The rate of this nonenzymic deamnination is rapid on the geological time scale.


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Environment of the Primitive Earth.
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