Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T14:01:03.320Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The structure and chemical layering of Proterozoic stromatolites in the Mojave Desert

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2015

Susanne Douglas ,
Meredith E. Perry ,
William J. Abbey ,
Zuki Tanaka ,
Bin Chen  and
Christopher P. McKay
Susanne Douglas
Affiliation:
Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA East Los Angeles College, Monterey Park, CA 91754, USA
Meredith E. Perry
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104, USA NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 940356, USA
William J. Abbey
Affiliation:
JPL, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
Zuki Tanaka
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 940356, USA Department of Electrical Engineering, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA
Bin Chen
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 940356, USA Department of Electrical Engineering, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA
Christopher P. McKay*
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 940356, USA
*
e-mail: chris.mckay@nasa.gov
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Proterozoic carbonate stromatolites of the Pahrump Group from the Crystal Spring formation exhibit interesting layering patterns. In continuous vertical formations, there are sections of chevron-shaped stromatolites alternating with sections of simple horizontal layering. This apparent cycle of stromatolite formation and lack of formation repeats several times over a vertical distance of at least 30 m at the locality investigated. Small representative samples from each layer were taken and analysed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), environmental scanning electron microscopy – energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, and were optically analysed in thin section. Optical and spectroscopic analyses of stromatolite and of non-stromatolite samples were undertaken with the objective of determining the differences between them. Elemental analysis of samples from within each of the four stromatolite layers and the four intervening layers shows that the two types of layers are chemically and mineralogically distinct. In the layers that contain stromatolites the Ca/Si ratio is high; in layers without stromatolites the Ca/Si ratio is low. In the high Si layers, both K and Al are positively correlated with the presence and levels of Si. This, together with XRD analysis, suggested a high K-feldspar (microcline) content in the non-stromatolitic layers. This variation between these two types of rocks could be due to changes in biological growth rates in an otherwise uniform environment or variations in detrital influx and the resultant impact on biology. The current analysis does not allow us to choose between these two alternatives. A Mars rover would have adequate resolution to image these structures and instrumentation capable of conducting a similar elemental analysis.

Keywords

stromatoliteMarselemental analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 517 - 526
Creative Commons
This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States.
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015

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

Allwood, A.C., Walter, M.R., Burch, I.W. & Kamber, B.S. (2007). 3.43 billion-year-old stromatolite reef from the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia: Ecosystem-scale insights to early life on Earth. Precambrian Research. 158, 198–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Awramik, S.M., Corsetti, F.A. & Shapiro, R. (2000). Stromatolites and the pre-Phanerozoic to Cambrian history of the area south east of Death Valley. Bull. San Bernardino County Mus. 47(2), 65–74.Google Scholar
Buick, R. (2008). When did oxygenic photosynthesis evolve? Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 363, 2731–2743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cloud, P., Wright, L.A., Williams, E.G., Diehl, P. & Walter, M.R. (1974). Giant Stromatolites and associated vertical tubes from upper Proterozoic noonday dolomite, Death-Valley Region, Eastern California. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 85(12), 1869–1882.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corkeron, M., Webb, G.E., Moulds, J. & Grey, K. (2012). Discriminating Stromatolite Formation Modes using Rare Earth Element Geochemistry: Trapping and Binding Versus in Situ Precipitation of Stromatolites from the Neoproterozoic Bitter Springs Formation, vol. 212–213, pp. 194–206. Northern Territory, Australia: Precambrian Research.Google Scholar
Downs, R.T. (2006). The RRUFF Project: an integrated study of the chemistry, crystallography, Raman and infrared spectroscopy of minerals. Program and Abstracts of the 19th General Meeting of the Int. Mineralogical Association in Kobe, Japan.Google Scholar
Grey, K., Clarke, J.D.A. & Hickman, A.H. (2012). The proposed Dawn of Life Geotourism Trail, Marble Bar, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia – geology and evidence for early life: Geological Survey of Western Australia, Record 2012/9, 27p.Google Scholar
Grotzinger, J.P. & Knoll, A.H. (1999) Stromatolites in precambrian carbonates: evolutionary mileposts or environmental dipsticks? Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 27, 313–358.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hickman, A.H. (2011). Pilbara Supergroup of the East Pilbara Terrane, Pilbara Craton: updated lithostratigraphy and comments on the influence of vertical tectonics. Geological Survey of Western Australia. Annual Review 2009–2010, pp. 50–59.Google Scholar
Hofmann, H.J., Grey, K., Hickman, A.H. & Thorpe, R. (1999). Origin of 3.45 Ga coniform stromatolites in Warrawoona Group, Western Australia. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 111, 1256–1262.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howell, D.G. (1971). A stromatolite from the Proterozoic Pahrump group, eastern California. J. Paleontol. 45(1), 48–51.Google Scholar
Lowe, D.R. (1980). Stromatolites 3,400-Myr old from the Archaean of Western Australia. Nature 284, 441–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKay, C.P. (1986). Exobiology and future Mars missions: the search for Mars’ earliest biosphere. Adv. Space Res. 6(12), 269–285.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKay, C.P. & Stoker, C.R. (1989). The early environment and its evolution on mars: implication for life. Rev. Geohpys. 27(2), 189–214.Google Scholar
Raaben, M.E., Sinha, A.K. & Sharma, M. (2001). Precambrian Stromatolites of India and Russia (a Catalogue of Type-form-genera), 125 p. Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow.Google Scholar
Roberts, M.T. (1974). Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments of the Crystal Spring Formation, Southern Death Valley Region, California. California Division of Mines and Geology Special Report 106.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Z., Perry, M., Cooper, G., Tang, S., McKay, C.P. & Chen, B. (2012). Near-infrared (NIR) Raman spectroscopy of Precambrian carbonate stromatolites with post-depositional organic inclusions. Appl. Spectrosc. 66, 911–916.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tice, M.M. & Lowe, D.R. (2004). Photosynthetic microbial mats in the 3,416-Myr-old ocean. Nature 431, 549–552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacey, D. (2012). Earliest evidence for life on Earth: an Australian perspective. Austr. J. Earth Sci. 59(2), 153–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walter, M.R., Buick, R. & Dunlop, J.S.R. (1980). Stromatolites, 3,400–3,500 Myr old from the North Pole area, Western Australia. Nature 284, 443–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar