Testing Timescales for Rhythms Recorded in the 2.5 Ga Banded Iron Formation of the Dales Gorge Member (Brockman Iron Formation, Hamersley Group, Australia)

The classic, Superior-type banded iron formation (BIF) of the Precambrian Dales Gorge Member (DGM) of the Brockman Iron Formation, Hamersley Basin, Western Australia consists of a succession of micro- (millimeter-scale) and meso- (centimeter to decimeter-scale) bands of primarily iron-silica chemical sediment alternations, separated into macro- (meter to decameter-scale) bands by shales (1). Here, we present a time-frequency analysis of a gray-scale scan of the DGM "type section core" Hole 47A with small contributions from Hole EC10 (1) to provide a comprehensive characterization of banding patterns and periodicity throughout the 140 m section. SHRIMP zircon ages (2) indicate that the DGM was deposited over approximately 30 myr during the Archean-Proterozoic transition just prior to the Great Oxidation Event. This suggests that the banding patterns recorded Milankovitch cycles, although with orbital-rotational parameters significantly different from present-day due to Earth's tidal dissipation and chaotic episodes in the Solar System since 2.5 Ga. Banding patterns change systematically within the formation in response to slowly varying environmental conditions, which have been interpreted previously to be related to sea level change and basin evolution (3). Researchers, including (2), have questioned the 30 myr duration, suggesting instead that the micro-bands may be annual in scale. This would indicate a much shorter duration of less than 150 kyr for the DGM. In an attempt to determine whether Milankovitch cycles could have generated the meso-band patterns, we present detailed studies of BIF0 and BIF12, which typify the marked changes in meso-banding along the section. Objective procedures are also applied, including ASM (4) and TIMEOPT (5) to test for a range of potential alternative timescales assuming orbital-rotational parameter values modeled for 2.5 Ga. References: (1) Trendall, A.K., Blockley, J.G., GSWA Ann. Rep. 1967, 48, 1968; (2) Trendall, A.K., et al., Austr. J. Earth Sci., 51, 621, 2004; (3) Pickard, A., Barley, M., Krapez, B., Sed. Geol., 170, 37, 2004; (4) Meyers, S.R., Sageman, B.B., Amer. J. Sci., 307, 773, 2007; (5) Meyers, S.R., Paleocean., 30, 2015.