an early archaean carbonate ramp（早太古代碳酸盐斜坡）.docVIP

An early Archaean deep-water micrite-BIF: Implications for biogeochemical cycling, and origin of banded-iron formation Jelte Harnmeijer1,2,* September 2009 1Center for Astrobiology and Early Earth Evolution, 2Department of Earth Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195-1310, U.S.A. *E-mail: jelte@. Phone: +1-206-543-9419. Keywords: banded-iron formation, BIF, dolomite, Archaean Abstract Deepwater sedimentary carbonates, and pelagic micritic precipitates in particular, are notably scarce in the Archaean. Here, we describe a newly discovered basinal ~3.52 Ga interlaminated magnetite-carbonate outcrop from the Pilbara’s Coonterunah Subgroup in Western Australia. Field and textural features point to pelagic precipitation of micritic calcium carbonate, with trace element concentrations indicating a calcitic precursor. Thermodynamic considerations rule out a siderite precursor to magnetite. The introduction of mixed sub-aerially erupted andesitic-rhyolitic tuff allowed for a very different flow regime in interstitial waters of this quiescent basin, formerly dominated by basaltic flow volcanism and hydrothermalism, and resulted in deposition of a 35 m thick stack of highly permeable tephra, thermally insulated and advectively isolated by a thoroughly silicified base capping the underlying basaltic pile. The interaction of ambient Archaean seawater with these acidic volcanics enabled mimetic dolomitization while inhibiting characteristic Archaean silicification by mafic-derived siliceous hydrothermal fluids beneath the sediment-water interface. Micritic laminae sample a stratified Archaean surface ocean bearing (13surface DIC = -3.0 ( 1.0 ‰, while carbonate-hosted kerogen samples a pelagic biota bearing (13surface org = -26.1 ( 2.4 ‰. This high degree of carbon fractionation, together with alkalinity-induced pelagic precipitation, and the oxidation of magnetite or its diagenetic precursor, hint at the dominance of oxyge