LATE ARCHEAN SHELF-TO-BASIN IRON SHUTTLE CONTRIBUTES TO THE FORMATION OF THE WORLD-CLASS DATAIGOU BANDED IRON FORMATION

Abstract

Banded iron formations (BIFs) are among the few chemical sedimentary archives that capture the biogeochemical evolution of Fe cycling and the redox evolution of the early Earth. Although biologically recycled continental Fe has been previously proposed to be a significant source of Fe in BIFs deposited from a stratified ocean at the onset of the Great Oxidation Event (GOE; ~2.5–2.2 Ga), constraining Fe sources and pathways in Archean BIFs remains challenging. Here we present major and trace element and Fe-Nd-Cr isotope data for the largest BIF (i.e., Dataigou) in China to test whether a benthic Fe shuttle was operative during deposition of pre-GOE BIFs. The absence of true, shale-normalized Ce anomalies, coupled with unfractionated Cr and positive Fe isotope compositions, suggests that BIF deposition occurred in an anoxic water column under reducing atmospheric conditions, whereas positive Eu anomalies indicate a significant input from a high-temperature hydrothermal source. Based on a significant correlation between initial Nd and Fe isotope data, we suggest that two Fe sources were periodically mixed and resulted in deposition of the Dataigou BIF. Here, we suggest the following sources: (1) hydrothermal fluids from sea-floor systems (low εNd(t) and high δ56Fe), derived from the interaction of fluids with underlying, older continental crust, and (2) a benthic Fe flux (high εNd(t) and low δ56Fe), generated by microbial Fe(III) reduction in coastal sediments during weathering of a nearby depleted landmass. Results presented here confirm, for the first time, that a microbially driven Fe shuttle was operational and supplied Fe on a basin-wide scale in the absence of atmospheric oxygen.