Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-swr86 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T02:18:52.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Tufted microbial (cyanobacterial) mats from the Proterozoic Stoer Group, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

R. L. Upfold
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Sedimentology Research Laboratory, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AB, England

Abstract

Upward-thinning stellate and polygonal carbonate structures are described and compared to modern and ancient stromatolites. Although tufted microbial mats are common in modern settings they have rarely been described from ancient rocks owing to their poor preservation potential. The preservation of these from the Stoer Group is due to early replacement by calcite before their original tufted relief could be obliterated by compaction. Associated limestones with some similar features are interpreted as flat to mamillated microbial mats.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anketell, J. M., Cegla, J., & Dzulynski, S., 1970. On the deformational structures in systems with reversed density gradients. Rocznik Polskiego Towarzystwa Krakowie 40, 330.Google Scholar
Downie, C., 1962. Demonstration of so-called spores from the Torridonian. Proceedings. Geological Society of London 1600, 127–8.Google Scholar
Dzulynski, S., & Walton, E. K., 1965. Sedimentary Features of Flysch and Greywackes. Developments in Sedimentology 7, 274 pp. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Horodyski, R. J., 1977. Lyngbya mats at Laguna Mormona, Baja California, Mexico: comparison with Proterozoic stromatolites. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 47, 1305–20.Google Scholar
Logan, B. W., Hoffman, P., & Gebelein, C. D., 1974. Algal mats, cryptalgal fabrics, and structures, Hamelin Pool, Western Australia. In Evolution and Diagenesis of Quaternary Carbonate Sequences, Shark Bay, Western Australia (ed. Logan, B. W., Read, J. F., Hagen, G. M., Hoffman, P., Brown, R. G., Woods, P. J., & Gebelein, C. D.), pp. 140–94. Memoir of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 22.Google Scholar
Moorbath, S., 1969. Evidence for the age of deposition of the Torridonian sediments of north-west Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology 5, 154–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, R. K., 1977. The preservation potential of some recent stromatolites. Sedimentology 24, 485506.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., Horne, J., Gunn, W., Clough, C. T., Hinxman, L. W., & Teal, J. J. H., 1907 The Geological Structure of the North-west Highlands of Scotland (ed. Geikie, A.). Memoir. Geological Survey of Great Britain 1, 668 pp.Google Scholar
Read, J. F., 1976. Calcretes and their distinction from stromatolites. In Stromatolites (ed. Walter, M. R.), pp. 5571. Developments in Sedimentology 20. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Stewart, A. D., 1969. Torridonian rocks of Scotland reviewed. In North Atlantic Geology and Continental Drift (ed. Kay, M.), pp. 595608. Memoir of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 12.Google Scholar
Stewart, A. D., 1978. Stoer and Loch Assynt (Torridonian). In The Lewisian and Torridonian rocks of North- West Scotland(Barber, A. J., Beach, A., Park, R. G., Tarney, J., & Stewart, A. D.), pp. 2735. Geologist's Association Guide 21.Google Scholar
Stewart, A. D., & Parker, A., 1979. Palaeosalinity and environmental interpretation of red beds from the late Precambrian (‘Torridonian’) of Scotland. Sedimentary Geology 22, 229–41.Google Scholar
Vlasov, F. Ya., 1970. Anatomy and morphology of stromatolites of the early and middle Proterozoic of the southern Urals. In Materialy po palaeontologii Urala, pp. 152–75. Sverdlovsk (In Russian).Google Scholar
Walter, M. R., Bauld, J., & Brock, T. D., 1976. Microbiology and morphogenesis of columnar stromatolites (Conophyton, Vacerrilla) from hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. In Stromatolites (ed. Walter, M. R.), pp. 273310. Developments in Sedimentology 20. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Wright, V. P., & Mayall, M., 1981. Organism-sediment interactions in stromatolites: an example from the Upper Triassic of south west Britain. In Phanerozoic Stromatolites (ed. Monty, C.), pp. 7484. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar