Little, CTS orcid.org/0000-0002-1917-4460, Johannessen, KC, Bengtson, S et al. (8 more authors) (2021) A late Paleoproterozoic (1.74 Ga) deep-sea, low-temperature, iron-oxidizing microbial hydrothermal vent community from Arizona, USA. Geobiology, 19 (3). pp. 228-249. ISSN 1472-4677
Abstract
Modern marine hydrothermal vents occur in a wide variety of tectonic settings and are characterized by seafloor emission of fluids rich in dissolved chemicals and rapid mineral precipitation. Some hydrothermal systems vent only low‐temperature Fe‐rich fluids, which precipitate deposits dominated by iron oxyhydroxides, in places together with Mn‐oxyhydroxides and amorphous silica. While a proportion of this mineralization is abiogenic, most is the result of the metabolic activities of benthic, Fe‐oxidizing bacteria (FeOB), principally belonging to the Zetaproteobacteria. These micro‐organisms secrete micrometer‐scale stalks, sheaths, and tubes with a variety of morphologies, composed largely of ferrihydrite that act as sacrificial structures, preventing encrustation of the cells that produce them. Cultivated marine FeOB generally require neutral pH and microaerobic conditions to grow. Here, we describe the morphology and mineralogy of filamentous microstructures from a late Paleoproterozoic (1.74 Ga) jasper (Fe‐oxide‐silica) deposit from the Jerome area of the Verde mining district in central Arizona, USA, that resemble the branching tubes formed by some modern marine FeOB. On the basis of this comparison, we interpret the Jerome area filaments as having formed by FeOB on the deep seafloor, at the interface of weakly oxygenated seawater and low‐temperature Fe‐rich hydrothermal fluids. We compare the Jerome area filaments with other purported examples of Precambrian FeOB and discuss the implications of their presence for existing redox models of Paleoproterozoic oceans during the “Boring Billion.”
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Authors. Geobiology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Arizona; Fe‐oxidizing bacteria; hydrothermal vents; jasper; late Paleoproterozoic; Verde mining district |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Earth Surface Science Institute (ESSI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 08 Feb 2021 11:43 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:34 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/gbi.12434 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:170835 |