Thermally induced habitat for the emergence of life - enrichment of phosphorus, divalent salts and compact oligomer folds.*

The early Earth 4 billion years ago was a scarce place for the emergence of life. After the formation of the oceans, it was most likely difficult to extract the essential ionic building blocks of life, such as phosphate or salts, from the existing geomaterial in sufficiently high concentrations and suitable mixing ratios. We show how ubiquitous heat fluxes through rock fractures implement a physical solution to this problem: Thermal convection and thermophoresis together are able to separate calcium from phosphorus and thus use ubiquitous but otherwise inert apatite as a phosphate source. Furthermore, the mixing ratio of different salts is modified according to their thermophoretic properties, providing a suitable non-equilibrium environment for the first prebiotic reactions.