Primary Mineral Information and Depositional Models of Relevant Mineral Facies of the Early Precambrian BIF—A Preliminary Review

doi:10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2018.02.0152

Advances in Earth Science ›› 2018, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (2): 152-165. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2018.02.0152

Primary Mineral Information and Depositional Models of Relevant Mineral Facies of the Early Precambrian BIF—A Preliminary Review

Xiaoxue Tong ^1, ^2, ³( ), Changle Wang ^1, ^2, ³, Zidong Peng ^1, ^2, ³, Jingbo Nan ^3, ⁴, Hua Huang ⁵, Lianchang Zhang ^1, ^2, ^3, ^*( )

1.Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029,China
2.Institutes of Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029,China
3.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049,China
4.Laboratory of Deep Sea Geology and Geochemistry, Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hainan Sanya 572000,China
5.Institute of Mineral Resources Research,China Metallurgical Geology Bureau,Beijing 101300,China

Received:2017-10-12 Revised:2017-11-27 Online:2018-02-20 Published:2018-04-02
Contact: Lianchang Zhang E-mail:xiaoxuetong1993@mail.iggcas.ac.cn;lczhang@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
About author:
First author:Tong Xiaoxue(1993-), female, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, Ph.D student. Research areas include BIF iron ore deposit.E-mail:xiaoxuetong1993@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
Supported by:
*Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China “The genetic connection and depositional environment of the BIF and VMS in late Archean greenstone belt in Qingyuan, China” (No.41572076) and “The genetic mechanism of magnetite and magnesite of Lilaozhuang BIF in Huoqiu” (No.41602097)

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Xiaoxue Tong, Changle Wang, Zidong Peng, Jingbo Nan, Hua Huang, Lianchang Zhang. Primary Mineral Information and Depositional Models of Relevant Mineral Facies of the Early Precambrian BIF—A Preliminary Review[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2018, 33(2): 152-165.

The primary mineral compositions of BIF are regarded as ferric oxyhydroxide or iron silicate nanoparticles (mainly greenalite and stilpnomelane ) whichcan transform into minerals like hematite, magnetite and siderite. On the basis of predominant iron minerals, three distinctive sedimentary facies are recognized in BIF: oxide facies, silicate facies and carbonate facies. Marked by the Great Oxidation Event (GOE, 2.4~2.2 Ga), sedimentary facies can be divided into two models: “anoxic and reducing” model and “stratified ocean” model. The ancient ocean was anoxic and reducing before GOE, and under this circumstance, BIF was distributed from the distal to proximal zones transforming from hematite facies through magnetite facies to carbonate facies, such as West Rand Group BIF (2.96~2.78 Ga) and Kuruman BIF (~2.46 Ga) in south Africa. However, the ancient ocean was a stratified ocean during and after GOE, which means that shallow seawater was oxidizing while deeper seawater was reducing, leading to an opposite sedimentary facies distribution compared to the former one: BIF was distributed from the distal to proximal zones transforming from carbonate facies through magnetite facies to hematite facies, such as Yuanjiacun BIF in China (~2.3 Ga) and Sokoman iron formation in Canada (~1.88 Ga). Overall, BIF is an unrepeatable formation in geological history, which can only form in specific sedimentary environment. The key point to speculate the paleo-ocean environment, namely the problems to be solved at the moment, is to identify and derive the primary mineral compositions, to make sure the genetic mechanism of sedimentary facies especially silicate facies, to restrict the sedimentary conditions and to study microbial activities contacting with BIF.

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