Abstract
Recently Proskurowski et al. (2008) authored an excellent paper in which they reported finding radiocarbon (¹⁴C) in Mid Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal vent fluids. The fluids had methane (CH₄) contents ranging from 1.07 to 1.84 mmol/kg. Other smaller amounts of C₂ to C₄ alkanes were also present. The theme of the paper was that the hydrocarbons were produced by abiogenic, Fischer-Tropsch type (FTT) reactions.