Summary
Life on Earth may have begun about 4×109 years (4 Ga) ago. Plate tectonics probably operated in the early Archaean, with rapid spreading at mid-ocean ridges, a komatiitic (magnesium-rich) oceanic crust, active volcanic arcs and the development of extensional basins on continental crust. Shallow water environments would have been more restricted and probably shorter-lived than in later geological times; however, extensive shallow seas existed in the later phases of the development of extensional basins. Bacterial communities-presumably photosynthetic-have probably existed in such shallow-water settings and probably at shallow depths in the oceans for at least 3.5 Ga. Because the mid-ocean ridges were probably subaqueous, hydrothermal systems would have been very vigorous and would have offered suitable habitats for early chemo-autotrophic bacterial communities. Early life forms probably also occupied vesicles in lavas, pumice and volcanic breccias, and pores in soft sediments, living in the constant flux of fluid flushing through permeable strata. Other, similar habitats would have existed in volcanic island arcs and in extensional basins.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Arndt NT (1983) Role of a thin komatiite-rich oceanic crust in the Archaean plate-tectonic process. Geology II:372–375
Barley ME, Dunlop JSR, Glover JE, and Groves DI (1979) Sedimentary evidence for an Archaean shallow-water volcanic-sedimentary facies. Earth Planet Sci Lett 32:74–84
Bickle MJ (1978) Heat loss from the Earth: a constraint on Archaean tectonics from the relation between geothermal gradients and the rate of plate production. Earth Planet Sci Lett 40:301–315
Bickle MJ, Eriksson KA (1982) Evolution and subsidence of early Precambrian sedimentary basins. Philos Trans R Soc Lond [A] 305:225–247
Bickle MJ, Martin A, Nisbet EG (1975) Basaltic and peridotitic komatiites and stromatolites above a basal unconformity in the Belingwe greenstone belt, Rhodesia. Earth Planet Sci Lett 27:155–162
Blake TS (1984) Evidence for stabilization of the Pilbara Block, Australia. Nature 307:721–723
Boak JL, Dymek RF (1982) Metamorphism of the ca. 3800 Ma supracrustal rocks at Isua, West Greenland: implications for early Archaean crustal evolution. Earth Planet Sci Lett 59:155–176
Buick R, Dunlop JSR, Groves DI (1981) Stromatolite recognition in ancient rocks: an appraisal of irregularly laminated structures in an Early Archaean chert-barite unit from North Pole, Western Australia. Alcheringa 5:161–182
Cairns-Smith AG (1982) Genetic takeover and the mineral origins of life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England
Campbell IH, Taylor SR (1983) No water, no granites—no oceans, no continents. Geophys Res Lett 10:1061–1064
Chinner GA, Sweatman TR (1968) A former association of enstatite and kyanite. Mineral Mag 36:1052–1060
Condie KC (1981) Archaean greenstone belts. Elsevier, Amsterdam
Corliss, JB, Baross JA, Hoffman SE (1981) An hypothesis concerning the relationship between submarine hot springs and the origin of life on Earth. Oceanologica Acta, No SP, Proceedings of the 26th International Geological Congress, Paris 1980, pp 59–69
Crick FC (1981) Life itself, its origins and nature. Simon & Schuster, New York
de Wit MJ (1982) Gliding and overthrust nappe tectonics in the Barberton Greenstone Belt. J Struct Geol 4:117–136
de Wit MJ, Hart R, Martin A, Abbott P (1981) Archaean abiogenic and probable biogenic structures associated with mineralized sub-aerial hydrothermal vent systems and regional metasomatism with implications for greenstone belt studies. Econ Geol 77:1783–1802
Edmond JM, von Damm K (1983) Hot springs on the ocean floor. Sci Am 248 (April):78–93
Fox GE, Stackebrandt E, Hespell RB, Gibson J, Maniloff J, Dyer TA, Wolfe RS, Balch WE, Tanner RS, Magrum LJ, Zablen LB, Blakemore R, Gupta R, Bonen L, Lewis BJ, Stahl DA, Leuhrsen KR, Chen KN, Woese DR (1980) The phylogeny of prokaryotes. Science 209:457–463
Fripp REP (1976) Stratabound gold deposits in Archaean banded iron formation, Rhodesia. Econ Geol 71:58–75
Henderson-Sellers A, Cogley JG (1982) The Earth's early hydrosphere. Nature 298:832–865
Javoy M, Pineau F, Allegre CJ (1982) Carbon geodynamic cycle. Nature 300:171–173
Jolliffe AW (1955) Geology and iron ores of Steep Rock Lake. Econ Geol 50:373–398
Kaine BP, Gupta R, Woese CR (1983) Putativeintrons in tRNA genes of prokaryotes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 80:3309–3312
Le Pichon X, Sibuet JC (1981) Passive margins: a model of formation. J Geophys Res 86:3708–3720
Lovelock JE (1979) Gaia, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 157 pp
Margulis L, Stolz J (1983) Microbial systematics and a Gaian view of the sediments. In: Westbroek P deJong EW (eds) Biomineralization and biological metal accumulation. D Riedel, Dordrecht, Holland, pp 27–50 (see also work by Lovelock quoted therein)
Martin A, Nisbet EG, Bickle MJ (1980) Archaean stromatolites of the Belingwe Greenstone Belt, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia). Precambrian Res 13:337–362
McKenzie DP, Weiss F (1980) The thermal history of the Earth. In: Strangway DW (ed) The continental crust and its mineral deposits. Geological Association of Canada, pp 575–590 (Geological Association of Canada Special Paper 20)
McKenzie DP, Nisbet EG, Sclater JG (1980) Sedimentary basin development in the Archaean. Earth Planet Sci Lett 48:35–41
Nisbet EG (1980) Archaean stromatolites and the search for the earliest life. Nature 284:395–396
Nisbet EG (1982) The tectonic setting and petrogenesis of komatiites. In: Arndt NT, Nisbet EG (eds) Komatiites. G Allen and Unwin, London, pp 501–520
Nisbet EG (1984) The Archaean crust and lithosphere: thermal and tectonic development. Can J Earth Sci 21:1426–1441
Nisbet EG, Chinner GA (1981) Controls on the eruption of mafic and ultramafic lavas, Ruth Well Cu−Ni prospect, West Pilbara. Econ Geol 76:1729–1735
Nisbet EG, Fowler CMR (1983) Model for Archaean plate tectonics. Geology II:376–379
Nisbet EG, Pillinger CT (1981) In the beginning. Nature 289:11–12
Richter FH, McKenzie DP (1978) Simple plate models of mantle convection. Z Geophys 44:441–471
Schidlowski M (1979) Antiquity and evolutionary status of bacterial sulfate reduction: sulfur isotope evidence. Orig Life 9:299–311
Schidlowski M (1980) The atmosphere. In: Hutzinger O (ed) The handbook of environmental chemistry, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Vol 1A, pp 1–16
Schidlowski M, Hayes JM, Kaplan IR (1983) Isotopic inferences of ancient biochemistries: carbon, sulfur, hydrogen and nitrogen. In: Schopf JW (ed) Earth's earliest biosphere. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 149–186
Schopf JW, Walter MR (1983) Archaean microfossils: new evidence of ancient microbes. In: Schopf JW (ed) Earth's earliest biosphere, Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 214–259 (see also various other chapters in this volume)
van Andel TjH (1983) States of past oceans. Nature 305:178–179
Walter MR (1977) Stromatolites. Elsevier, Amsterdam
Walter MR, Buick R, Dunlop JSR (1980) Stromatolites 3400–3500 Myr old from the North Pole area, Western Australia
Wilson JF (1979) A preliminary appraisal of the Rhodesian basement complex. Geological Society of South Africa, pp 1–23 (Geological Society of South Africa Special Publication 5)
Woese CR (1981) Archaebacteria. Sci Am 244 (June):98–102
Worst BG (1956) The geology of the country between Belingwe and West Nicholson. (Southern Rhodesia Geological Survey Bulletin 43)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nisbet, E.G. The geological setting of the earliest life forms. J Mol Evol 21, 289–298 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02102361
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02102361