Stratified Sulfide Deposits State of the Art Report

The geology of stratified sulfide deposits suggests strongly that they formed under low temperature conditions at or close to the sediment surface (P.A. Trudinger and N. Williams, this volume). Today, in such environments, iron sulfides frequently form as a result of microbiological sulfate reduction (8), and it has been widely postulated ((18), Table X) that this process was also important in the formation of many of the ancient stratified sulfide deposits. If this postulate is true, one may be able to evaluate the environmental conditions in terms of the oceanic and atmospheric chemistry at the time of formation of the deposits.