Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Geochemistry

The mystery of Don Juan Pond

Nature volume 464, page 1290 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Naturally occurring nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, is mainly produced by biological processes. So how can it have formed in high concentrations in one of the harshest environments on Earth, a place where attempts at finding life have failed? Writing in Nature Geoscience, Vladimir Samarkin et al. provide the answer: an unexpected abiotic mechanism for nitrous oxide production (V. Samarkin et al. Nature Geosci. doi:10.1038/NGEO847; 2010).

Samarkin et al. realized that the environment of Don Juan Pond contains chemical ingredients that might take part in reactions that produce nitrous oxide: nitrate and nitrite salts in the brine, and iron(II) salts in the rocks around the pond's edges. Back in the laboratory, they found that nitrous oxide was indeed immediately produced when they mixed sterile brine from the pond with minerals found in the pond's vicinity, and at temperatures as low as −20 °C. Hydrogen gas was also produced.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Authors
  1. Andrew Mitchinson
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mitchinson, A. The mystery of Don Juan Pond. Nature 464, 1290 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/4641290a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4641290a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing