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PHYSICAL SCIENCES / BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / GEOLOGY / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Biological formation of ethane and propane in the deep marine subsurface

Kai-Uwe Hinrichs^,,, John M. Hayes^,, Wolfgang Bach^,¶, Arthur J. Spivack^||, Laura R. Hmelo^,, Nils G. Holm, Carl G. Johnson^¶, and Sean P. Sylva

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft–Research Center Ocean Margins, Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, P.O. Box 330440, 28334 Bremen, Germany; Departments of Geology and Geophysics and ^¶Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Woods Hole, MA 02543; ^||Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02882; and Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden

Contributed by John M. Hayes, July 31, 2006

Concentrations and isotopic compositions of ethane and propane in cold, deeply buried sediments from the southeastern Pacific are best explained by microbial production of these gases in situ. Reduction of acetate to ethane provides one feasible mechanism. Propane is enriched in ¹³C relative to ethane. The amount is consistent with derivation of the third C from inorganic carbon dissolved in sedimentary pore waters. At typical sedimentary conditions, the reactions yield free energy sufficient for growth. Relationships with competing processes are governed mainly by the abundance of H₂. Production of C₂ and C₃ hydrocarbons in this way provides a sink for acetate and hydrogen but upsets the general belief that hydrocarbons larger than methane derive only from thermal degradation of fossil organic material.

ethanogenesis | hydrocarbon gases | marine sediments | propanogenesis | stable carbon isotopes

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Claypool, G. E., AAPG Hedberg Conference Abstracts, Natural Gas Formation and Occurrence, June 6–11, 1999, Durango, CO, pp. 27–29 (abstr.).

To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: khinrichs{at}uni-bremen.de or jhayes{at}whoi.edu

© 2006 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

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