Kirishites, a new type of natural high-carbon compounds

On the right-hand bank of the Volkhov River, in the natural area of tektite-like glasses (Volkhovites), fragments of shungites and slags with bunches of hairlike dark brownish enclosures were found. The filament thickness ranged from 20 to 100 μm, and separate “hairlines” were 3 cm in length. The composition of shungites and “hairlines” was found to be identical, which allowed us to consider the latter as aposhungite carbon formations. The high-carbon hairline structures associated with volkhovites are called kirishites. Kirishites are a new type of high-carbon structures that formed simultaneously with volkhovites in the case of explosion-type delivery of carbon slag and shungite fragments to the daylight surface during Holocene explosive activity. Under sharply reductive conditions, the slags partially melted, the melts were segregated, and carbonaceous-silicate and carbonaceous-ferriferous glasses formed with subsequent decompression-explosive liberation of carbon-supersaturated structures, which were extruded from shungite and slag fragments in the form of a resinoid mass. The “hairlines” were found to be zonal in structure: the central axial zones are composed of high-nitrogen hydrocarbon compounds, and peripheral regions are essentially carbonaceous with a high content of organic-mineral compounds and numerous microanomalies of petrogenic, volatile, rare, and ore elements. Infrared spectroscopy identified in kirishites proteinlike compounds, diagnosed in absorption bands (in cm−1) 600–720 (Amid V), 1200–1300 (Amid III), 1480–1590 (Amid II), 1600–1700 (Amid I), 3000–3800 (vibrations in NH2 and II groups). Gas chromatography, with the possibility of differentiation of left- and right-handed forms, revealed a broad spectrum of amino acids in kirishites, with their total content found to be the absolutely highest record for natural bitumens, an order of magnitude higher than the largest amino acid concentrations ever revealed in fibrous high-structured kerite crystals from Volyn pegmatites and in Transbaikalia phyto fulgurates. Like in phytofulgurites and fibrous kerites, in kirishites the amino acids are abiogenic, and they are predominately left-handed in configuration, contrary to the commonly accepted view about the exclusively biological nature of left-handed amino acids and their natural abiological thermofusion. Kirishites can be considered as models of prebiotic systems, predecessors of the simplest living organisms. This process could be favored by extreme conditions with rapid variations of temperature and pressure. Further study of kirishites and construction of a kirishite formation model will also be useful for development of the conception of endogenous ore-naphtobiogenesis.