Evaporitic sediments of Early Archaean age from the Warrawoona Group, North Pole, Western Australia
Abstract
Chemical sediments are common and diverse in the c. 3500 Myr old North Pole chert‐barite unit in the Warrawoona Group, Western Australia. Although almost all original minerals were replaced during hydrothermal alteration, metamorphism and deformation, pseudomorphic relics of sedimentary and diagenetic textures and structures show that at least six lithofacies were partly or wholly chemical in origin. These contained five main chemical sedimentary components: primary carbonate mud, diagenetic carbonate crystals, primary sulphate crystals, diagenetic sulphate crystals and diagenetic sulphate nodules. All show a wide range of characteristics consistent only with a marine evaporative origin. Diagenetic carbonate and sulphate crystals, once ferroan dolomite and gypsum, were precipitated within volcanogenic lutites high on littoral mudflats. The other evaporative phases were apparently deposited behind a barrier bar composed of stranded pumice rafts. Primary sulphate crystals, once gypsum and now barite, were precipitated in semi‐permanent pools immediately behind the bar. Primary carbonate mud, originally calcitic or aragonitic but now silicified, was deposited in nearby channels and on surrounding mudflats. Within these sediments, diagenetic carbonate crystals (formerly ferroan dolomite) and diagenetic sulphate nodules and crystals (once gypsum) grew during later desiccation. The existence of these evaporites, and more like them in the sediments of other Early Archaean cratons, suggests that shallow marine and terrestrial conditions prevailed over a small but significant portion of the early Earth, contrary to some models of global tectonic evolution. Their overall similarity with more recent evaporitic deposits indicates that there was greater conformity between conditions in modern and primeval sea‐shore environments than might be expected, given the great age difference. The attitude implicit in many accounts of Earth's early history, that evaporites were either not deposited or not preserved in Archaean sediments, thus seems to be incorrect.
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Pseudomorphs of barite after gypsum are reported in 3.5-Ga-old evaporites that are now partially silicified.
“Pseudomorphs of barite after gypsum are reported in 3.5-Ga-old evaporites that are now partially silicified (244).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [244]
Three-dimensional universal stage petrography found interfacial angles diagnostic of gypsum at the original crystal faces in the 3.5-Ga evaporites.
“However, three-dimensional universal stage petrography found interfacial angles diagnostic of gypsum at the original crystal faces (244), which are partially replaced by quartz and draped by quartz, so cannot show up in x-ray density contrasts.”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [244]
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- Authors
- BUICK, R., & DUNLOP, J. S. R.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- ORCID
- BUICK, ROGER
- Venue
- Sedimentology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1990-04
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 247-277
- ISSN
- 0037-0746 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-3091
- OpenAlex
- W1964759069
- Cited by
- 273
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 4.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Sedimentology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geophysics › Geological and Geochemical Analysis
- Keywords
- evaporites, early Archaean, Warrawoona Group, chemical sediments, lithofacies, diagenesis, gypsum, barite, ferroan dolomite, barrier bars, pumice rafts, desiccation, early Earth conditions, hydrothermal alteration, North Pole
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