Hydrothermal H may have played a major role in pre-biotic chemistry. Production of H by serpentinization supported formation of the reactants proposed in the iron-sulfur world origin of life hypothesis. The subsequent evolution of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis is hypothesized as one of the earliest metabolisms on Earth.
Serpentinization can occur on any planetary body with chondritic composition. The discovery of H on other ocean worlds, such as Enceladus, suggests that similar processes are ongoing elsewhere in the Solar System, and potentially in other planetary systems as well.