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Banded Iron Formations (Jaspilites): The Paleontologist’s View

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Abstract

Studies of fossil bacteria show that mineral formation affected by or involving bacteria has occurred everywhere on Earth since the emergence of bacteria. Homogeneity of rocks and rock formations in the Precambrian and Devonian indicate that similar conditions in the Archean, Proterozoic, and Devonian, during the formation of the rocks studied.

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Notes

  1. Greenstone belts are among the structural elements of the ancient continental platform. They are complexes of ultramafic and mafic igneous rocks, volcanic-sedimentary formations, and granite intrusive rocks. They are deposited as thick (up to 20 km) linear strata (belts), which are up to 1000 km long and 200 km wide. Greenstone belts are the most common Middle and Late Archean rock complexes. The age of the greenstone belts is 2.5–3.5 Ga.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author thanks A.Yu. Rozanov, E.A. Zhegallo, L.V. Zaitseva, and G.T. Ushatinskaya, as well as everyone who helped carry out this research and participated in the discussion of results. The author is especially grateful to A.V. Tkachev, S.B. Felitsyn, and N.A. Alfimova, as well as the TsNIGR Museum team, who kindly provided the samples of the Zhairem jaspiloids and Archean-Proterozoic BIFs for this study.

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  1. Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117647, Moscow, Russia

    M. M. Astafieva

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Translated by A. Panyushkina

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Astafieva, M.M. Banded Iron Formations (Jaspilites): The Paleontologist’s View. Paleontol. J. 55, 343–354 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030121030060

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