Mineral remains of early life on earth? On mars?
作者:
EleanoraIberall Robbins,
ArthurS. Iberall,
期刊:
Geomicrobiology Journal
(Taylor Available online 1991)
卷期:
Volume 9,
issue 1
页码: 51-66
ISSN:0149-0451
年代: 1991
DOI:10.1080/01490459109385985
出版商: Taylor & Francis Group
关键词: Bacteria;ferrihydrite;hematite;iron;Isua Iron‐Formation;Mars;oxygen;prebiotic;sampling
数据来源: Taylor
摘要:
The oldest sedimentary rocks on Earth, the 3.8‐Ga Isua Iron‐Formation in southwestern Greenland, are metamorphosed past the point where organic‐walled fossils would remain. Acid residues and thin sections of these rocks reveal ferric microstructures that have filamentous, hollow rod, and spherical shapes not characteristic of crystalline minerals. Instead, they resemble ferric‐coated remains of bacteria. Modern so‐called iron bacteria were therefore studied to enhance a search image for oxide minerals precipitated by early bacteria. Iron bacteria become coated with ferrihydrite, a metastable mineral that converts to hematite, which is stable under high temperatures. If these unusual morphotypes are mineral remains of microfossils, then life must have evolved somewhat earlier than 3.8 Ga, and may have involved the interaction of sediments and molecular oxygen in water, with iron as a catalyst. Timing is constrained by the early in fall of planetary materials that would have heated the planet's surface.
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