Abstract
A morphologically variable assemblage of stromatolites has been discovered in thin chert layers within the Fig Tree Group of the Swaziland Supergroup, South Africa. They are commonly low-relief, nearly stratiform, laterally linked domes. Rarer forms include pseudocolumns and crinkly stratiform stromatolites. The stromatolites grew on a substrate of altered komatiitic lava and sediments deposited on the lava surface, and in most places are covered by later komatiitic flows. Abundant fine-grained tourmaline included within the stromatolite laminae suggests that stromatolites formed in an environment dominated by boron-rich hot-spring emissions and evaporitic brines.
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Byerly, G., Lower, D. & Walsh, M. Stromatolites from the 3,300–3,500-Myr Swaziland Supergroup, Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa. Nature 319, 489–491 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/319489a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/319489a0
