Realistic melange - Part 1: Formation

Melange, also known as "the spice", is a fictional drug in Frank Herbert's famous Dune series, which has many benefits (and some drawbacks). In this series of questions, I'll try to see how many of its properties a single, consistent substance could plausibly have at once.

These effects are:

• Increased lifespan
• Expanded sensory awareness
• Prescience (we'll leave that one aside for now)
• Eyes being stained blue
• Addiction
• Mutation

Other things of note include that withdrawal from consuming melange is fatal and its production. Kind of a Dune spoiler:

When the excreted waste of young sandworms mixes with water, it forms something called a pre-spice mass. Pressure causes the pre-spice mass to rise to the surface, where exposure to the sun and air turns it into melange.

So, the first of these questions will deal with the source of melange. How exactly would the chemistry of the above process work? If it would work at all, that is. Are there any real-life examples of things which happen similarly?

If it ends up being implausible, I'll accept the closest you can get.

posted almost 5 years ago

SealBoi‭

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