Life as an Extension of the Planet: The Early Earth as a Thermodynamic Oscillator and Mechanical Dissipation in Prebiotic Abiogenesis

Bridging the gap between inanimate matter and the first autonomous cellular life formsremains one of science’s premier challenges. This work proposes a paradigm shift in prebioticabiogenesis, transitioning from a static geochemical environment to a dynamic model drivenby the geodynamical oscillations of the Hadean Earth (approx. 4.2–4.0 Ga). While staticlaboratory setups face a strict physical bottleneck due to rapid osmotic equilibration, our hy-pothesis frames protocells as a direct extension of planetary dissipative structures. UtilizingIlya Prigogine’s framework of non-equilibrium thermodynamics and the Maximum EntropyProduction Principle (MEPP), we demonstrate that early amphiphilic vesicles operated aspaleophysical sensors, responding directly to the planet’s mechanical pulses.We model the structural tension of primitive membranes subjected to periodic shear stress(σshear ) using ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The results demonstrate the existenceof a strict resonance window where the planetary forcing frequency (fearth) correlates withthe intrinsic mechanical relaxation time of the bilayer (τ ). Outside this resonance, systemseither undergo destructive dissolution (high-frequency regime) or collapse into a thermody-namically dead state of equilibrium (low-frequency regime). Within the resonance window,however, the system exhibits rhythmic micro-fissure opening, efficient polymerization insidea ”molecular trap,” and subsequent controlled mechanical fission according to the Szostakregime.This mathematical framework is successfully mapped onto verified geological processesof the early Earth: low-frequency Hadean tidal megacycles driven by lunar proximity (T ≈3.5 hours), medium-frequency hydrodynamic pulses from radiogenic hydrothermal geysers(T ≈ 15 minutes), and high-frequency pressure micro-pulses in tectonic faults. Most no-tably, we introduce macro-hydrodynamic von K´arm´an vortex streets as a continuous drivingmechanism that perfectly resonates with vesicle relaxation times on the order of seconds(τ ≈ 1.0 − 5.0 s). We present indirect evidence that the rhythmic dissipation of Earth’sinternal energy was the primary physical driver that shaped the first living systems throughfrequency selection, catalyzing the transition from geological mechanics to autonomous bio-logical homeostasis.