Stromatolites from the 3,300-3,500-Myr Swaziland Supergroup, Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa
Abstract
A morphologically variable assemblage of stromatolites has been discovered in thin chert layers within the Fig Tree Group of the Swaziland Supergroup, South Africa. They are commonly low-relief, nearly stratiform, laterally linked domes. Rarer forms include pseudocolumns and crinkly stratiform stromatolites. The stromatolites grew on a substrate of altered komatiitic lava and sediments deposited on the lava surface, and in most places are covered by later komatiitic flows. Abundant fine-grained tourmaline included within the stromatolite laminae suggests that stromatolites formed in an environment dominated by boron-rich hot-spring emissions and evaporitic brines.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- February 1986
- DOI:
- 10.1038/319489a0
- Bibcode:
- 1986Natur.319..489B