Iron formations are economically important sedimentary rocks that are most common in Precambrian sedimentary successions. Although many aspects of their origin remain unresolved, it is widely accepted that secular changes in the style of their deposition are linked to environmental and geochemical evolution of Earth. Two types of Precambrian iron formations have been recognized with respect to their depositional setting. Algoma-type iron formations are interlayered with or stratigraphically linked to submarine-emplaced volcanic rocks in greenstone belts and, in some cases, with volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits. In contrast, larger Superior-type iron formations are developed in passive-margin sedimentary rock successions and generally lack direct relationships with volcanic rocks. The early distinction made between these two iron-formation types, although mimimized by later studies, remains a valid first approximation. Texturally, iron formations were also divided into two groups. Banded iron formation (BIF) is dominant in Archean to earliest Paleoproterozoic successions, whereas granular iron formation (GIF) is much more common in Paleoproterozoic successions. Secular changes in the style of iron-formation deposition, identified more than 20 years ago, have been linked to diverse environmental changes. Geochronologic studies emphasize the episodic nature of the deposition of giant iron formations, as they are coeval with, and genetically linked to, time periods when large igneous provinces (LIPs) were emplaced. Superior-type iron formation first appeared at ca. 2.6 Ga, when construction of large continents changed the heat flux at the core-mantle boundary. From ca. 2.6 to ca. 2.4 Ga, global mafic magmatism culminated in the deposition of giant Superior-type BIF in South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Russia, and Ukraine. The younger BIFs in this age range were deposited during the early stage of a shift from reducing to oxidizing conditions in the ocean-atmosphere system. Counterintuitively, enhanced magmatism at 2.50 to 2.45 Ga may have triggered atmospheric oxidation. After the rise of atmospheric oxygen during the GOE at ca. 2.4 Ga, GIF became abundant in the rock record, compared to the predominance of BIF prior to the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). Iron formations generally disappeared at ca. 1.85 Ga, reappearing at the end of the Neoproterozoic, again tied to periods of intense magmatic activity and also, in this case, to global glaciations, the so-called Snowball Earth events. By the Phanerozoic, marine iron deposition was restricted to local areas of closed to semiclosed basins, where volcanic and hydrothermal activity was extensive (e.g., back-arc basins), with ironstones additionally being linked to periods of intense magmatic activity and ocean anoxia.

Late Paleoproterozoic iron formations and Paleozoic ironstones were deposited at the redoxcline where biological and nonbiological oxidation occurred. In contrast, older iron formations were deposited in anoxic oceans, where ferrous iron oxidation by anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria was likely an important process. Endogenic and exogenic factors contributed to produce the conditions necessary for deposition of iron formation. Mantle plume events that led to the formation of LIPs also enhanced spreading rates of midocean ridges and produced higher growth rates of oceanic plateaus, both processes thus having contributed to a higher hydrothermal flux to the ocean. Oceanic and atmospheric redox states determined the fate of this flux. When the hydrothermal flux overwhelmed the oceanic oxidation state, iron was transported and deposited distally from hydrothermal vents. Where the hydrothermal flux was insufficient to overwhelm the oceanic redox state, iron was deposited only proximally, generally as oxides or sulfides. Manganese, in contrast, was more mobile. We conclude that occurrences of BIF, GIF, Phanerozoic ironstones, and exhalites surrounding VMS systems record a complex interplay involving mantle heat, tectonics, and surface redox conditions throughout Earth history, in which mantle heat unidirectionally declined and the surface oxidation state mainly unidirectionally increased, accompanied by superimposed shorter term fluctuations.

/pdf/iron-formation-the-sedimentary-product-of-a-complex-r6geq57jzt.pdf

Iron Formation: The Sedimentary Product of a Complex Interplay among Mantle, Tectonic, Oceanic, and Biospheric Processes

The late Archean record: a puzzle in ca. 35 pieces

Porphyroclasts of feldspar and other relatively rigid minerals in mylonites commonly have mantles of dynamically recrystallized material that extend as tails into the matrix. The internal shape symmetry of such porphyroclasts is usually orthorhombic or monoclinic; the orientation of the porphyroclast with respect to the foliation (external symmetry) can also be described by these symmetry classes. An identical monoclinic external symmetry of most porphyroclasts in a given sample indicates non-coaxial flow in the matrix during at least the last stages of deformation. Two classes of porphyroclast systems with monoclinic symmetry have been identified on geometrical grounds. sigma-type porphyroclasts are characterized by wedge-shaped tails of recrystallized material. Median lines of the tails lie on opposite sides of, and do not cross, a marker line drawn parallel to the mean foliation. sigma-type porphyroclasts may lie isolated in a homogeneous matrix (sigma/sub a./-type) or may be in clusters associated with shear bands or S-C mylonites (sigma/sub b/-type). delta-type porphyroclasts commonly occur in ultramylonites and have highly attenuated recrystallized tails. Median lines of the tails cross the marker line adjacent to the porphyroclast which results in an embayment of matrix material adjacent to the host grain. More complex porphyroclast systems include ellipsoidal overturned delta-types,more » complex sigma - delta types and folded porphyroclast aggregates. In all cases, the symmetry of porphyroclast aggregates with respect to the foliation can be used to accurately determine the sense of vorticity in the mylonites.« less

Porphyroclast systems as kinematic indicators

The end-Paleozoic Pangea appears to have contained three continents that had grown in the Precambrian and remained intact until Mesozoic rifting: Ur, formed at ~3 Ga and accreted to most of East Antarctica in the middle Proterozoic to form East Gondwana; Arctica, an approximately 2.5-2 Ga continent that contained Archean terranes of the Canadian and Siberian shields and Greenland; and Atlantica, formed at ~2 Ga of cratons of ~2 Ga age that now occur in West Africa and eastern South America. Arctica grew at ~1.5 Ga by accretion of most of East Antarctica plus Baltica to form the continent of Nena. Collision of Nena, Ur, and Atlantica, plus minor plates, formed the supercontinent of Rodina at ~1 Ga. Rifting of Rodinia between 1 and 0.5 Ga formed three continents: East Gondwana; Atlantica (which became the nucleus for West Gondwana); and Laurasia (which contained North America, Greenland, Baltica, and Siberia). Gondwana formed at ~0.5 Ga by amalgamation of its eastern and western parts. Various plates accret...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/30068065.pdf

A History of Continents in the past Three Billion Years

The Dharwar craton, southern India, interpreted as the result of Late Archaean oblique convergence

The Archaean nucleus of Singhbhum: the present state of knowledge

Structural relationships and SrNd isotope systematics of polymetamorphic granitic gneisses and granitic rocks from central Rajasthan, India: implications for the evolution of the Aravalli craton

The Eastern Ghats Belt is a polycyclic granulite terrain along the east coast of India whose western boundary is marked by a shear zone along which the granulites are thrusted over the cratonic units of the Indian shield, and its northern margin is marked by the presence of a number of fault-bounded blocks. Recent work has convincingly brought out that there are domains within the belt having different evolutionary histories. The segment south of the Godavari Rift went through a high grade thermo-tectonic event at ∼1.6-1.7 Ga. North of the Godavari Rift in a narrow zone along the western boundary the last high-grade metamorphic event is of late Archaean age. A series of alkaline plutons along the western boundary zone testifies to a rifting episode at ∼1.3-1.5 Ga. In the major part of the EGB the metamorphism is broadly of Grenvillian age, with two major thermo-tectonic pulses at ∼1.1-1.2 Ga and ∼0.95-1.0 Ga. But high grade conditions persisted for a long period and younger thermal events of ∼0.65 Ga to ∼0.80 Ga are locally recorded. There are differences in the tectonometamorphic histories of different domains, but the tectonic significance of these differences remains uncertain. Pan-African (0.50-0.55) thermal overprints are common and become conspicuous along the western boundary zone. The thrusting of the Eastern Ghats granulites in a hot state over the cratons to the west is of Pan-African age. In the Rodinia assembly (∼0.9 Ga) the Eastern Ghats and the Rayner-Napier Complexes of Antarctica were contiguous, but the pre-Rodinia configuration of these terrains remains unclear. At ∼0.8 Ga during the Rodinia break up Greater India rifted apart from East Antarctica, and only later it docked with Australia-East Antarctica at 530-550 Ma. The continuation of the East Antarctic Pan-African orogenic belts into the Eastern Ghats is yet to be ascertained.

/pdf/the-eastern-ghats-belt-a-polycyclic-granulite-terrain-3z6wayofod.pdf

The Eastern Ghats Belt … A polycyclic granulite terrain

SHRIMP U-Pb analyses of zircon grains from two thin dark shales believed to be syndepositional ashfall tuffs close to the base of the banded iron-formation (BIF) within the Mulaingiri Formation of the Bababudan Group (Dharwar Supergroup) of the western Kamataka Craton provide a precise age for the onset of BIF deposition in the basin. Sample 120019C, from the exact base of the BIF, gave an age of 2720 ± 7 Ma, while sample 120018C, 14.5m above the base, gave an age of 2718 ± 6 Ma. The second sample contained younger grains which may have been affected by a late thermal event.

A precise zircon U-Pb age for the base of the BIF of the Mulaingiri Formation, (Bababudan Group, Dharwar Supergroup) of the Karnataka Craton

Frozen-in reaction textures combined with mineral chemistry of tourmaline-bearing metamorphic assemblages provide valuable information about fluid-rock interaction during orogenesis. Tourmaline occurs in four distinct mineralogical associations in the Singhbhum Shear Zone (SSZ) of the Precambrian East Indian craton. The tourmaline-bearing rocks are associated intimately with pelitic to psammopelitic and quartzofeldspasthic rocks, including meta-granite. The rocks were affected by two sets of folding (F1 and F2) and ductile shearing associated with F1 during ca. 1.6–1.8 Ga tectonic activity in this belt. Quantitative geothermobarometry and the stability relations of the metamorphic assemblages developed in the pelitic rocks establish the presence of two episodes of metamorphism; a prograde M1 event that culminated at 480 ± 40 °C, 6.4 ± 0.4 kbar, and an M2 event that caused retrogression of the M1 assemblages.

Field and petrographic observations in combination with data on chemical composition of tourmaline indicate three stages of tourmaline growth. The earliest stage is represented by pretectonic (pre−metamorphic) greenish-yellow tourmaline cores in the tourmalinite from the Surda area (Association A). The textural relations demonstrate that in the second stage, greenish-yellow cores of oscillatory zoned tourmaline in the metagranite (albite + quartz + biotite + chlorite ± muscovite ± apatite ± magnetite, Association C), very fine tourmaline grains in muscovite schist (muscovite ± quartz, Association B) and greenish yellow cores of tourmaline in biotite-muscovite schist (biotite + muscovite + magnetite + chlorite + apatite+ quartz, Association D) crystallized during the F1-M1 events. Post-tectonic, greenish-blue tourmaline, belonging to the third stage, replaces the earlier tourmaline grains along their margins and cracks.

Compositionally, tourmalines of all four associations fall in the alkali group. Most of the data fall in the dravite field with a few analyses straddling the boundary between schorl and dravite. An abrupt compositional change was noted across the different color zones in the tourmaline grains. This change is explained by one or more of the coupled substitutions, □Al(NaR)−1, CaR(NaAl) −1, and Mg(Fe) −1, where R = Mg + Fe2+ + Mn. Integrating the field, petrographic, and phase-compositional data, it has been demonstrated that tourmaline growth in the second and third stages was induced by infiltration-driven, B metasomatism during prograde metamorphism of the rocks. Deep-seated magma was the source of the B-bearing hydrothermal fluid.

Dhruba Mukhopadhyay

Papers

The Archaean nucleus of Singhbhum: the present state of knowledge

Structural relationships and SrNd isotope systematics of polymetamorphic granitic gneisses and granitic rocks from central Rajasthan, India: implications for the evolution of the Aravalli craton

The Eastern Ghats Belt … A polycyclic granulite terrain

A precise zircon U-Pb age for the base of the BIF of the Mulaingiri Formation, (Bababudan Group, Dharwar Supergroup) of the Karnataka Craton

Tourmaline-bearing rocks in the Singhbhum shear zone, eastern India: evidence of boron infiltration during regional metamorphism