>>For example, they showed that seawater circulates through the crust, changing its composition and the chemistry of the seawater itself.
One of the leading theories on the origin of life on this planet centers around that seawater circulating into olivine, turning it into serpentine and producing alkaline water that rose back into the ocean, creating elaborite mineral deposits, some very thin, with alkaline on one side and acidic on the other there was potential electromagnetic potential, something that could have been both the model and the spark for the start of life.
FWIW, all life works on that alkaline/acid (which is really a proton level) imbalance across a membrane. We eucaryotes have the power-producing membrane inside mitochondria. Procaryotes use their cell wall.