Geochemists analyzing vapor plumes venting from the fracture zones of an icy satellite observed elevated concentrations of molecular hydrogen and methane. Laboratory simulations establish that while hydrothermal serpentinization reactions produce abundant hydrogen, the abiotic reduction of dissolved carbon dioxide into methane proceeds far too slowly under the moon's inferred core temperatures to yield the observed methane concentrations. On this basis, the researchers conclude that biological methanogenesis by chemoautotrophic microorganisms in the sub-surface ocean is the primary source of the plume methane.
True or False: The finding that primordial methane trapped in sub-surface clathrate hydrates during the satellite's initial accretion would have completely decomposed and outgassed within the first billion years of the solar system's formation logically strengthens the researchers' conclusion.
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