Arising from: Y. Ueno, K. Yamada, N. Yoshida, S. Maruyama & Y. Isozaki Nature 440, 516–519 (2006); Ueno et al. reply

Ueno et al.¹ contend that methane found in fluid inclusions within hydrothermally precipitated quartz in the Dresser Formation of western Australia (which is roughly 3.5 Gyr old) provides evidence for microbial methanogenesis in the early Archaean era. The authors discount alternative origins for this methane, suggesting that the range of ¹³C_CH4 values that they record (-56 to -36) is attributable to mixing between a primary microbial end-member with a ¹³C_CH4 value of less than -56 and a mature thermogenic gas enriched in ¹³C (about -36). However, abiotic methane produced experimentally^{2, 3} and in other Precambrian greenstone settings^{4, 5} has ¹³C-depleted ¹³C_CH4 values, as well as ¹³C_CO2–CH4 relationships that encompass the range measured for the inclusions by Ueno et al. — which suggests that an alternative, abiotic origin for the methane is equally plausible. The conclusions of Ueno et al. about the timing of the onset of microbial methanogenesis might not therefore be justified.

1. Department of Geology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3B1, Canada
2. Center for Astrobiology and Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

Correspondence to: Barbara Sherwood Lollar¹ Email: bslollar@chem.utoronto.ca

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