Ladakh’s hot springs may hold clues to origins of life on Earth, Mars

New Delhi, Jul 29: A natural hot spring in Ladakh’s Puga Valley may offer critical clues to how life began on Earth and how it might exist elsewhere in the solar system, including Mars. A team of Indian scientists from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), under the Department of Science and Technology, has discovered that calcium carbonate deposits (travertine) from the high-altitude Puga hot springs could act as natural incubators for early life-forming molecules.

The findings challenge conventional theories which focus primarily on silica-based origins of life, by revealing the underexplored role of carbonate minerals, especially calcium, in supporting prebiotic chemistry.

Led by Dr. Amritpal Singh Chaddha, along with Dr. Sunil Kumar Shukla, Dr. Anupam Sharma, Prof. M.G. Thakkar, and Dr. Kamlesh Kumar, the interdisciplinary research was conducted under BSIP’s newly formed Earth and Planetary Exploration Group (EPEG). Using advanced analytical techniques including microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, GC-MS-MS, XRD, IR, and stable isotope geochemistry, the team found preserved amino acid derivatives, fatty acids, sulphur compounds, and formamide—key building blocks of life—encapsulated within natural calcite crystals at the site.

Dr. Chaddha explained that the travertine from Puga effectively trapped and stabilized organic precursors in the harsh, high-UV environment, conditions similar to early Earth or Martian landscapes. “Empirical evidence suggests that natural travertine from the Puga Hot Spring can trap and preserve prebiotic organic molecules, highlighting CaCO₃ as a potential natural template for origin-of-life chemistry,” he said.

The study, published in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, provides a plausible model for how life-sparking chemistry could have occurred in real-world extreme environments, far beyond controlled laboratory settings. The discovery has potential implications for astrobiology and planetary exploration, particularly for missions by agencies like ISRO seeking to identify biosignatures on Mars and other celestial bodies. It also deepens scientific understanding of natural biomolecule preservation—an insight valuable to fields such as synthetic biology and materials science.