Thanks for the post about geobiology - fascinating work been/being done in this field in the Pilbara from what I have seen in a limited google research from the original lead.
A lot of the info goes over my head but it shows that there is ongoing research into the evolution of oxygen and life in the early Archaean. Something QH is likely to have followed over the years.
The Panorama project of VXR has a small district of VMS deposits in the basement rocks to the Fortescue. DEG's Orchard Well is also VMS. Both of these are "close" to Whim Creek.
This article is about stromatolites in the general area of the Panorama project. Probably need a PhD in the field to understand a lot of it!!
Modern day evidence for black smokers and life at the bottom of the ocean could have some analogy to these but the nature of the earth 3+ Billion years ago was almost the stuff of science fiction.
The black smokers seen today can be in water thousands of meters deep, = no sunlight, cold, food? for the very local rich life forms - when first discovered such oases of life in such inhospitable were totally unexpected.
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Ed Mead at last months GM commented on how strange it would seem with a very different atmosphere, low oxygen, a moon that was probably closer to the earth, shorter days (?earth rotation quicker??), and tides like you wouldn't believe, among some of the main differences. From memory of the meeting but IMO not unexpected given geological evidence - the detail will be different but some variant is quite likely.
With an environment so different to our everyday experience some unusual geological processes could come together to form deposits that are unique to that small time frame.
In general I suspect mineral deposits are a confluence of events that may or may not occur again throughout the earth's history. The environment Ed described was likely to be unique.
How such an environment may have produce an immature auriferous, basin wide conglomerate is difficult to imagine and may never be fully understood. If such a beast exists, and is economic, researchers will gather a lot of data and come up with various theories.
Weekend fun for me and hopefully some interest to others for a Sunday.
(20min delay)