Replying to Sherwood Lollar and McCollom

Sherwood Lollar and McCollom¹ suggest that abiotic reactions, in particular those catalysed by Fe–Ni alloys, might be responsible for the methane recorded in our fluid inclusions². They point out that ¹³C in methane that is produced abiotically can be substantially depleted under field and laboratory conditions. However, native metal catalysis would not only have been implausible in the sulphidic environment of the basalt-hosted Dresser hydrothermal system, but it would also have been inconsistent with the isotopic fractionation between CH₄ and CO₂ that we note in the primary fluid².

1. Research Center for the Evolving Earth and Planet, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan
2. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan
3. Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan
4. Department of Environmental Chemistry and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan
5. SORST project, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
6. Department of Earth Science and Astronomy, University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan

Correspondence to: Yuichiro Ueno^1,2,5 Email: yueno@depe.titech.ac.jp

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