Microfossils and Paleoenvironments in Deep Subsurface Basalt Samples
作者:
J. P. McKinley, T. O. Stevens, F. Westall,
期刊:
Geomicrobiology Journal
(Taylor Available online 2000)
卷期:
Volume 17,
issue 1
页码: 43-54
ISSN:0149-0451
年代: 2000
DOI:10.1080/014904500270486
出版商: Informa UK Ltd
关键词: Microfossils;Paleoenvironments;Biogeochemistry;Exobiology
数据来源: Taylor
摘要:
Secondary minerals near and within fractures in Columbia River basalts contain objects the size and shape of bacteria. These bacteriomorphs are most commonly rods or ellipses but also include cocci and diplococci forms, vibrioids and club-shaped rods, and associated pairs of objects that suggest cellular division by binary fission. Secondary minerals associated with, enclosing, and making up bacteriomorphs include iron oxyhydroxides, sulfides, and smectites containing ferrous iron. The secondary minerals are intimately intermixed with kerogen. Moreover, bacteriomorphs in the pyrite consist of kerogen. Careful consideration of mineral associations, the occurrence of organic carbon, and the spatial context of bacteriomorphs indicate that they are microfossils. The association of microfossils with minerals formed in reducing environments suggests an ancient ecosystem dominated at least in part by sulfate-reducing bacteria, similar to communities within these basalts today.
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