Vanished evaporites and carbonate formation in the Neoarchaean Kogelbeen and Gamohaan formations of the Campbellrand Subgroup, South Africa

Mass microbial colonization across extensive Neoarchaean epeiric seas witnessed the microbiogeochemical transformation of the Earth's hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. The consequences for a reducing ocean would be the progressive oxidation of the major dissolved species in surface seawater, most notably of reduced sulphur and iron. Cyanobacterial photosynthetic oxidation of surface seawater drove formation of aqueous sulphate and permitted the precipitation of extensive evaporites in restricted basins, perhaps beginning the process of ridding the oceans of reduced sulphur. The first dramatic explosion of carbonate precipitation can be related to intense bacterial sulphate reduction in association with anoxic organic diagenesis and pyrite formation within the decaying interiors of microbialites and in sapropels.