Hot-Water Deposition of Pyritic Stromatolite and Its Relation to Biomineralization

摘要

Pyritic stromatolite, a rich pyrite ore, is scattered as reef masses in sedex deposits of the Proterozoic Yanshan rift trough. The pyritic stromatolite consists of a core and alternating concentric rims of light colloidal pyrite and dark organic materials. The concentric rims are cemented together by trichomes highly similar to the trichomic microorganisms inhabiting substantively around the black chimneys on the current sea beds while the core is composed chiefly of groups of thermophilous sulphur bacteria. Biomarkers for the molecules of pyritic stromatolite include pristane, phytane, regular isoprenoids paraffin, methyl-heptadecyl, and so on. This study reveals the existence of methane-yielding bacteria in the pyritic stromatolite and reflects the evolution of thermophilous thallophyta.Long pulsation of mineralizing thermal solutions venting up along contemporaneous faults in rift troughs contributed greatly not just to the reproduction of thermophilous organisms living around the vents, but to