Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

PRECAMBRIAN GEOLOGY

Ancient rust

Nature Geoscience volume 12, pages 498–499 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Confidence that banded iron formations record oxic conditions during deposition is established, as a model demonstrates that they are formed of primary iron oxides rather than secondarily altered silicate minerals.

Banded iron formations — the world’s major source of iron ore today — are one of the great enigmas in geology. Made of interlaminated microcrystalline quartz and iron-rich minerals (commonly iron oxides), they are most often found in 1.8 to 3.0 billion-year-old sedimentary rock units. They have not formed since the mid-Precambrian and are thus essentially an extinct lithology. Geologists have tried for decades to develop plausible models for their formation, which has proven to be challenging because modern analogues are extremely rare1. Writing in Nature Geoscience, Robbins et al.2 present a hydrogeological box model to address a recent concern that the iron oxides within these deposits could have formed via secondary processes. They conclude that banded iron formations are most likely primary precipitates of the early ocean and therefore record oxic conditions on the early Earth.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Banded iron formation from Dales Gorge, Western Australia.

References

  1. Chi Fru, E. et al. Solid Earth 9, 573–598 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Robbins, L. J. et al. Nat. Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0372-0 (2019).

  3. Lyons, T. W., Reinhard, C. T. & Planavsky, N. J. Nature 506, 307–315 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Anbar, A. D. & Holland, H. D. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 56, 2595–2603 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Isley, A. E. & Abbott, D. H. J. Geophys. Res.: Solid Earth 104, 15461–15477 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Konhauser, K. O. et al. Geology 30, 1079–1082 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Chan, C. S., Emerson, D. & Luther, G. W. III Geobiology 14, 509–528 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Kipp, M. A. & Stüeken, E. E. Sci. Adv. 3, eaao4795 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Viehmann, S., Bau, M., Hoffmann, J. E. & Münker, C. Precambrian Res. 270, 165–180 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Konhauser, K. O. et al. Nature 458, 750–753 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Swanner, E. D. et al. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 390, 253–263 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Planavsky, N. J. et al. Nature 467, 1088–1090 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Rasmussen, B., Muhling, J. R. & Fischer, W. W. Geology 47, 167–170 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Tosca, N. J., Guggenheim, S. & Pufahl, P. K. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 128, 511–530 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Eva E. Stüeken

Authors
  1. Eva E. Stüeken
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eva E. Stüeken.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stüeken, E.E. Ancient rust. Nat. Geosci. 12, 498–499 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0396-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0396-5

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing