| Dresser Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Paleoarchaen [1] | |
| Type | Geological formation |
| Unit of | Warrawoona Group |
| Sub-units | two bedded chert horizons separated by pillow basalt |
| Underlies | Mount Ada Basalt |
| Overlies | North Star Basalt |
| Area | limited to Panorama greenstone belt surrounding North Pole Dome of Pilbara Craton |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | bedded chert, volcaniclastic sandstone, felsic tuff, conglomerate, breccia, and jaspilitic chert |
| Other | basalt |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 21°09′06″S 119°26′14″E / 21.151759°S 119.437252°E |
| Region | Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Extent | 25 km2 (9.7 sq mi)[2] |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Dresser Mine |
| Named by | M. J. Van Kranendonk[3] |
| Location | Dresser Mine |
| Year defined | 2000[3] |
| Region | Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
The Dresser Formation is a Paleoarchean geologic formation that outcrops as a generally circular ring of hills the North Pole Dome area of the East Pilbara Terrane of the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. This formation is one of many formations that comprise the Warrawoona Group, which is the lowermost of four groups that comprise the Pilbara Supergroup. The Dresser Formation is part of the Panorama greenstone belt that surrounds and outcrops around the intrusive North Pole Monzogranite. Dresser Formation consists of metamorphosed, blue, black, and white bedded chert; pillow basalt; carbonate rocks; minor felsic volcaniclastic sandstone and conglomerate; hydrothermal barite; evaporites; and stromatolites. The lowermost of three stratigraphic units that comprise the Dresser Formation contains some of the Earth's earliest commonly accepted evidence of life such as morphologically diverse stromatolites, microbially induced sedimentary structures, putative organic microfossils, and biologically fractionated carbon and sulfur isotopic data.[1][2][3][4]
- ^ a b Van Kranendonk, M.J., Djokic, T., Poole, G., Tadbiri, S., Steller, L. and Baumgartner, R., 2019. Depositional setting of the fossiliferous, c. 3480 Ma Dresser Formation, Pilbara Craton: A review. In Van Kranendonk, M.J., Bennett, V.C., and Hoffmann, J.E., ed., pp. 985-100, Earth's Oldest Rocks, 2nd ed. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Elsevier. 1112 pp.
- ^ a b Noffke, N., Christian, D., Wacey, D. and Hazen, R.M., 2013. Microbially induced sedimentary structures recording an ancient ecosystem in the ca. 3.48 billion-year-old Dresser Formation, Pilbara, Western Australia. Astrobiology, 13(12), pp.1103-1124.
- ^ a b c Van Kranendonk, M. J., 2000. Geology of the North Shaw 1:100 000 sheet 275. East Perth, Western Australia, Geological Survey of Western Australia. scale 1:100,000, one sheet and explanatory notes.
- ^ Van Kranendonk, M.J., Philippot, P., Lepot, K., Bodorkos, S. and Pirajno, F., 2008. Geological setting of Earth's oldest fossils in the ca. 3.5 Ga Dresser formation, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia. Precambrian Research, 167(1-2), pp.93-124.
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