The ∼3.4 billion-year-old strelley pool sandstone: A new window into early life on Earth

International Journal of Astrobiology

Volumn 5, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 333-342

  Wacey, David ^a   McLoughlin, Nicola ^a   Green, Owen R ^a   Parnell, John ^b   Stoakes, Crispin A ^c   Brasier, Martin D ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN   (United Kingdom)

^c C A Stoakes and Associates Pty Ltd   (Australia)

Author keywords

Archaean; Early life; Microtubes; Pilbara; Sandstone; Strelley Pool Formation; Taphonomy

Indexed keywords

ARCHEAN; DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENT; EARTH; FOSSIL RECORD; GEOLOGICAL MAPPING; PETROGRAPHY; SANDSTONE; TAPHONOMY;

AUSTRALASIA; AUSTRALIA; PILBARA; WESTERN AUSTRALIA;

EID: 33847259199     PISSN: 14735504     EISSN: 14753006     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1473550406003466     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. Allwood, A.C., Walter, M.R., Kamber, B.S., Marshall, C.P. & Burch, I.W. (2006). Stromatolite reef from the early Archaean era of Australia. Nature 441, 714-718.
2. Bjonnes, E. & Lindsay, J.F. (2005). The depositional setting of Earth's earliest sedimentary rocks. Lunar Planet. Sci. XXXVI, (Abstract) 1821.pdf.
3. Brasier, M.D., Green, O.R., Jephcoat, A.P., Kleppe, A.K., Van Kranendonk, M.J., Lindsay, J.F., Steele, A. & Grassineau, N.V. (2002 Questioning the evidence for Earth's oldest fossils. Nature 416, 76-81.
4. Brasier, M.D., Green, O.R., Lindsay, J.F., McLoughlin, N., Steele, A. & Stoakes, C. (2005). Critical testing of Earth's oldest putative fossil assemblage from the ∼3.5 Ga Apex Chert, Chinaman Creek Western Australia. Precamb. Res. 140, 55-102.
5. Brasier, M.D., Green, O.R. & McLoughlin, N. (2004). Characterization and critical testing of potential microfossils from the early Earth: The Apex 'microfossil debate' and its lessons for Mars sample return. Int. J. Astrobiol. 3, 139-150.
6. Brasier, M.D., McLoughlin, N., Green, O.R. & Wacey, D. (2006). A fresh look at the fossil evidence for early Archaean cellular life. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 361, 887-902.
7. Buick, R. (1990). Microfossil recognition in Archaean rocks: An appraisal of spheroids and filaments from 3500 M.Y old chert barite at North Pole, Western Australia. Palaios 5, 441-459.
8. Buick, R., Thornett, J.R., McNaughton, N.J., Smith, J.B., Barley, M.E. & Savage, M. (1995). Record of emergent continental crust ∼3.5 billion years ago in the Pilbara craton of Australia, Nature 375, 574-577.
9. Dickinson, W.R. (1970). Interpreting detrital modes of greywacke and arkose. J Sed. Petrol. 40, 695-707.
10. Fisk, M.R., Giovannoni, S.J. & Thorseth, I.H. (1998). Alteration of oceanic volcanic glass: Textural evidence of microbial activity. Science 281, 978-980.
11. Folk, R.L. (1968). Petrology of Sedimentary Rocks, p. 182. Hemphill, Austin, TX.
12. Furnes, H., Banerjee, N.R., Muehlenbachs, K., Staudigel, H. & de Wit, M. (2004). Early life recorded in Archaean pillow lavas. Science 304, 578-581.
13. Furnes, H., Banerjee, N.R., Staudigel, H., Muehlenbachs, K., Simonetti, A., de Wit, M. & Van Kranendonk, M.J. (2006). Earth's oldest microbial biomarkers in pillow lavas: A new geological setting in the search for early life. Geophys. Res. Abs. 8, 11078.
14. Gazzi, P. (1966). Le arenarie del flysch sopracretaceo dell'Appennino modenese; correlazioni con il flysch di Monghidoro. Mineralogica Petrographica Acta 12, 6997.
15. Hickman, A.H. (1975). Precambrian structural geology of part of the Pilbara region. West. Aust. Geol. Survey Annual Report 1974, pp. 68-73.
16. Hickman, A.H. (1983). Geology of the Pilbara block and its environs. West. Aust. Geol. Survey Bull. 127, 268.
17. Hickman, A.H. (1984). Archean diapirism in the Pilbara Block, Western Australia. In Precambrian Tectonics, ed. Kroner, A. & Greiling, R.), pp. 113-127. E. Schweizerbarts'che Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart.
18. Hofmann, H.J. (2000). Archean stromatolites as microbial archives. In Microbial Sediments ed. Riding, R.E. & Awramik, S.M., pp. 315-327. Springer, Berlin.
19. Hoffman, H.J., Grey, K., Hickman, A.H. & Thorpe, R. (1999). Origin of 3.45 Ga coniform stromatolites in Warawoona Group, Western Australia. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 111, 1256-1262.
20. Ingersoll, R.V., Bullard, T.F., Ford, R.L., Grimm, J.P., Pickle, J.D. & Saves, S.W. (1984). The effect of grain size on detrital modes: A test of the Gazzi Dickinson point-counting method. J. Sed. Petrol. 54, 103-116.
21. Knoll, A.H. & Barghoorn, E.S. (1974). Ambient pyrite in Precambrian Chert: New evidence and a theory. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 71, 2329-2331.
22. Lowe, D.R. (1980). Stromatolites 3,400-Myr old from the Archean of Western Australia. Nature 284, 441-443.
23. Lowe, D.R. (1983). Restricted shallow-water sedimentation of early Archaean stromatolitic and evaporitic strata of the Strelley Pool Chert, Pilbara block, Western Australia. Precamb. Res. 19, 239-283.
24. Lowe, D.R. (1994). A biological origin of described stromatolites older than 3.2 Ga. Geology 22, 387-390.
25. Nijman, W., De Bruin, K. & Valkering, M. (1998). Growth fault control of early Archaean cherts, barite mounds, and chert barite veins, North Pole Dome, Eastern Pilbara, Western Australia. Precamb. Res. 88, 25-52.
26. Schopf, J.W. (1992). The oldest fossils and what they mean. In Major Events in the History of Life, ed. Schopf, J.W., pp. 29-63. John and Bartlett, Boston.
27. Schopf, J.W. (1993). Microfossils of the Early Archaean Apex Chert: New evidence for the antiquity of life. Science 260, 640-646.
28. Schopf, J.W. (1999). The Cradle of Life, p. 367. Princeton University Press, new York.
29. Schopf, J.W. & Packer, B.M. (1987). Early Archaean (3.3 billion to 3.5 billion-year-old) microfossils from Warawoona Group, Australia. Science 237, 70-73.
30. Smithies, R.H., Van Kranendonk, M.J. & Champion, D.C. (2005). It started with a plume - early Archaean basaltic proto-continental crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 238, 284-297.
31. Tice, M.M. & Lowe, D.R. (2004). Photosynthetic microbial mats in the 3,416-Myr-old ocean. Nature 431, 549-552.
32. Van Kranendonk, M.J. (1999). North Shaw: Western Australia Sheet 2755. West. Aust. Geol. Survey, 1:100 000 Geological Series. Western Australia Geological Survey.
33. Van Kranendonk, M.J. (2000). Geology of the North Shaw 1:100,000 sheet. West. Aust. Geol. Survey, 1:100 000 Geological Series Explanatory Notes, p. 86. Western Australia Geological Survey.
34. Van Kranendonk, M.J. (2006). Volcanic degassing, hydrothermal circulation the flourishing of early life on Earth: A review of the evidence from from c. 3490-3240 Ma rocks of the Pilbara Supergroup, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia. Earth Sci. Rev. 74, 197-240.
35. Van Kranendonk, M.J., Hickman, A.H., Smithies, R.H. & Nelson, D. (2001). geology and tectonic evolution of the Archean North Pilbara Terrain, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia. Econ. Geol. 97, 695-732.
36. Van Kranendonk, M.J., Hickman, A.H., Williams, I.R. & Nijman, W. (2001). Archean geology of the East Pilbara granite greenstone terrain, Western Australia - a field guide. West. Aust. Geol. Survey Record 9, 134.
37. Wacey, D., Kilburn, M., McLoughlin, N. & Brasier, M.D. (2006). The use of NanoSIMS to critically test claims of early (3.5 billion year old) life. Geophys. Res. Abs. 8, 04906.
38. Walsh, M.M. (2004). Evaluation of early Archean volcaniclastic and volcanic flow rocks as possible sites for carbonaceous fossil microbes. Astrobiology 4, 429-437.