BIF (Banded Iron Formation) putative Stromatolite mineral Iron rich 2460 Myr

Kuruman iron formation

The Palaeoproterozoic Kuruman BIF of Transvaal Group in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa was dated by SHRIMP U-Pb zircon chronology to be 2460 Myr, (Pickard 2003). The studied sample is from the rhythmical chert and oxide-rich bands of Groenwater member (Pickard 2003), which represents a type of shallowing-upward deposition from the deepwater (Beukes 1984). The peak metamorphic temperatures for Kuruman Iron Formation should not exceed 110–170°C (Miyano and Beukes 1984). The Kuruman Iron Formation deposited at the peak-time of BIF (Klein 2005) that was coincident with the transition from the anaerobic atmosphere to the oxygenic atmosphere that fundamentally changed the pathway of life evolution on Earth (Bekker et al. 2004).