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Assessing the biogenicity and syngenicity of candidate bioalteration textures in pillow lavas of the ∼2.52 Ga Wutai greenstone terrane of China

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  • Geology
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Microorganisms that inhabit sub-seafloor lavas are capable of etching volcanic glass and creating micron-sized tunnels and pits. Mineralization of these bioalteration traces ensures that these textures survive deformation and transformation of the host glass to metamorphic minerals. The fossil record of such bioalteration textures extends far beyond volcanic glass from in-situ oceanic crust to include meta-volcanic glass from ophiolites and Precambrian greenstone belts. Investigation of petrographic thin section reported here from ∼2.52 Ga tholeiitic pillow lavas from the Wutai Group of N. China found filamentous micro-textures. Laser Raman spectroscopy confirmed that these textures are mineralized by titanite. Moreover, the Wutai micro-textures are comparable in size, morphology and distribution to bioalteration textures from Archean greenschist facies pillow lavas. In-situ U-Pb dating of the titanite by laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS) gives an age of 1.81 ± 0.12 Ga (2σ, n=22, 206Pb/238U weighted average). This provides a minimum age for the mineralization of these candidate bioalteration textures and corresponds to a regional metamorphic event. This also represents a minimum age estimate for the timing of bioalteration and is compatible with the existence of a Late Archean-Proterozoic sub-seafloor biosphere.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science and Center for Geobiology, Allegaten 41, Bergen, N-5007, Norway

    N. McLoughlin, D. J. Fliegel & H. Furnes

  2. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0225, USA

    H. Staudigel

  3. Department of Civil Engieering and Geological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, IN46556, USA

    A. Simonetti

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China

    GuoChun Zhao

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4J1, Canada

    P. T. Robinson

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  1. N. McLoughlin
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  2. D. J. Fliegel
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  3. H. Furnes
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  4. H. Staudigel
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  5. A. Simonetti
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  6. GuoChun Zhao
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  7. P. T. Robinson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to GuoChun Zhao.

Additional information

We thank L. Nasdala for assistance in obtaining the Raman spectroscopy data shown in Figure 5 and N. Banerjee for insightful discussions concerning microbial bioalteration. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This work was supported by a Norwegian Research Council Project, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40730315) and Hong Kong RGC GRF (Grant Nos. HKU7063/06P, 7066/07P and 7057/08P).

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McLoughlin, N., Fliegel, D.J., Furnes, H. et al. Assessing the biogenicity and syngenicity of candidate bioalteration textures in pillow lavas of the ∼2.52 Ga Wutai greenstone terrane of China. Chin. Sci. Bull. 55, 188–199 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0448-0

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