The Wadi Hodein area in the south Eastern Desert of Egypt is occupied by Neoproterozoic Pan-African (Precambrian) basement rocks including metamorphic and intrusive assemblages. The metamorphic assemblage comprises dismembered ophiolitic metamorphosed ultramafic rocks and island-arc calc-alkaline metavolcanics. On the other hand, the intrusive assemblage rocks include syn-tectonic tonalite-gran...

The Cuatro Ciénegas Basin (CCB) is a rare oasis in the Chihuahuan Desert in the state of Coahuila, Mexico. It has a biological endemism similar to that of the Galapagos Islands, and its spring-fed ecosystems have very low nutrient content (nitrogen or phosphorous) and are dominated by diverse microbialites. Thus, it has proven to be a distinctive opportunity for the field of astrobiology, as th...

We agree with Glikson [1] that the identification of Precambrian impact deposits is an important and largely unresolved problem, and thank him for providing us with an opportunity to further discuss our mineralogical and geochemical results [2] on the enigmatic spherule layers in the Barberton Mountain Land of South Africa. We note, however, that unfortunately Glikson has not been able to name ...

The sudden appearance of fossils that marks the so-called 'Cambrian explosion' has intrigued and exercised biologists since Darwin's time. In On the Origin of Species, Darwin made it clear that he believed that ancestral forms 'lived long before' their first fossil representatives. While he considered such an invisible record necessary to explain the level of complexity already seen in the foss...

The internal layering and provenance of feldspar in 3 tills and in one outwash deposit at Gahanna, Ohio, were studied by determining pebble lithologies and Rb-Sr dates of feldspar. Variations in lithology of pebbles and in the Rb-Sr ratios of feldspar in the 125—250 micrometer fractions reveal discontinuities which divide the upper 2 tills into 2 subunits each. Each of the lower subunits appear...

Microbialites are the most abundant macrofossils of the Precambrian. Decline in microbialite abundance and diversity during the terminal Proterozoic and early Phanerozoic has historically been attributed to the concurrent radiation of complex metazoans. Similarly, the apparent resurgence of microbialites in the wake of Paleozoic and Mesozoic mass extinctions is frequently linked to drastic decl...

[1] Reliable global crustal field anomaly maps produced from magnetic measurements of the CHAMP satellite mission now allow for quantitative geological studies of crustal structure and composition. We have developed a GIS based forward modeling technique to model these anomaly maps. On the basis of the geologic and tectonic maps of the world, laboratory susceptibility values of the occurring ro...

Ab&r&-Quartz crystals from calcite veins of unknown age in Precambrian metasedimentary rocks at Geiaus No. 6 and Aukam farms in South-West Africa contain both primary and secondary inclusions filled with one or a variable combination of: organic liquid, moderately saline aqueous liquid, dark-colored solid, and vapor. Analysis of these materials by microscopy and by gas chromatography and maas s...

The AOC Granite 7-32-89-10 hole, drilled to search for oil in the Precambrian basement below the Alberta bituminous (tar) sands near Fort McMurray, Canada, penetrates layered biotite-hypersthene quartz diorite-gabbro sills that occur between 543 and 2363.3 meters depth. Three episodes of fracturing and cataclasis affected these sills. The first allowed Kand Si-metasomatism to change many parts ...