Volcanic Glasses as Habitat for Microfossils: Evidence from the Early Paleoproterozoic Pillow Lavas of Karelia and their Modern Analogues in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Microbial complexes were identified in the volcanic glasses from the ancient (2.4-Ga-old basaltic pillow-lavas of Karelia) and modern (pillow lavas of Mid-Atlantic ridge) volcanic rocks. It was shown that that their microbial colonization is likely to occur by the same mechanism. Thus, well preserved pillow lavas, which occupy a spacious fields in the Archean and Early Paleoproterozoic greenstone belts, are promising object for search of the earliest traces of life on Earth.