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Abiotic Earth - Establishing a Baseline for Earliest Life, Data from the Archean of Western AustraliaStromatolitic structures preserved at two stratigraphic levels within the 3.47-3.43 Ga Warrawoona Group of Western Australia have been interpreted as some of "the least controversial evidence of early life on earth" and "the oldest firmly established biogenic deposits now known from the geologic record". The structures were said to have formed in a shallow sub-tidal to intertidal setting as part of an evaporite succession. In an extensive field program we have re-evaluated exposures of the Strelley Pool Chert from which stromatolites have been described and carried out detailed mapping and sampling of the Strelley Pool West site 13.7 km west of the type locality. Data from our ongoing program cast considerable doubt on the biogenic origins of the stromatolitic structures and on the nature of their depositional setting.
Document ID
20030111245
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Lindsay, J. F.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Brasier, M. D.
(Oxford Univ. Oxford, United Kingdom)
McLoughlin, N.
(Oxford Univ. Oxford, United Kingdom)
Green, O. R.
(Oxford Univ. Oxford, United Kingdom)
Fogel, M.
(Carnegie Institution of Washington Washington, DC, United States)
McNamara, K. M.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Steele, A.
(Carnegie Institution of Washington Washington, DC, United States)
Mertzman, S. A.
(Franklin and Marshall Coll. Lancaster, PA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2003
Publication Information
Publication: Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIV
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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