Ancient Microbe-Sediment Systems Of The Barberton Greenstone Belt

The modern sedimentary environment contains a diversity of microbes that interact very closely with the sediments, sometimes to such an extent that they form "biosediments." But can such a phenomenon be fossilized? How far back in time can "biosedimentation" be traced? In a study for Geology, Frances Westall and colleagues examine some of the oldest rocks on Earth, in the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa (older than 3.3 billion years), to answer this question.Westall and colleagues use multi-scale methods to document the simultaneous presence of diverse types of microorganisms, including phototrophs and chemotrophs, directly interacting with coastal volcanic sediments that were bathed by hydrothermal fluids. read more

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