Proterozoic microbial reef complexes and associated hydrothermal mineralizations in the Banfora Cliffs, Burkina Faso

The Proterozoic Guena-Souroukoundinga Formation of the Mopti arm (Gourma Aulacogen, southerm Taoudeni Basin) consists of a shale-dominated succession, up to 200 m thick, with scattered microbial reef complexes. Quarry exposures of the Tiara reef complex allow reconstruction of a transect across back-reef peritidal laminites, reef margin and peri-reef ooidal shoals, and fore-reef slope strata. Microbial carbonate productivity nucleated on isolated palaeohighs during transgression, whereas its end was controlled by two tectonically induced drowning pulses that led to the successive record of onlapping kerogenous limestones and pelagic shales. Reef carbonates are crosscut by fractures and fissures occluded by hydrothermal mineralizations, which are related to the rifting activity of the Gourma Aulacogen. The Tiara reef complex is similar to other Proterozoic reefs in being composed nearly entirely of stromatolites, although calcimicrobial (filamentous) and thromboid textures are locally abundant, which contrast with their scarcity or absence in coeval stable-platform microbial reefs of the northern Taoudeni Basin.