Precambrian Earth

and Life History

Chapter 19
 Introduction
 Precambrian—(before
545mya) makes up over
88% of all geologic time
 No rocks are known for
the first 640 million years
of Earth history
 Complex deformation and
lack of fossils make
relative age determination
difficult
 Subdivided into:
 Hadean (4.0 bya)
 Archean Eon (2.5-4.0 bya)
 Proterozoic Eon (545 mya-
2.5 bya)
What Happened During the Hadean?

 Oldest mineral Zircon from Jack Hills, Australia,

dated at 4.4 billion years old, may confirm
oldest continental crust existed at that time,
shortly after the Earth-moon system was
formed (Valley et al., 2014).
Some crust did exist during the Hadean, evidenced
by metamorphic rocks up to 4.28 billion years old
was discovered from Nuvvuagittuq Belt, Quebec
(O’Neil et al., 2008);

3.96 billion years old rocks from N.W.T, Canada

were reported earlier.

earliest crust was likely thin, unstable, and ultramafic,

partial melting of this crust yielded intermediate and
perhaps even felsic magmas that formed volcanic
island arcs by the beginning of the Archean, collisions
between island arcs and plutonic activity had resulted
in the origin of several continental nuclei
 Shields, Platforms, and Cratons
• Shields
• large areas of exposed Precambrian rock, e.g. Canadian
shield
• Platforms
• Precambrian rocks covered with younger rocks
• Craton
• shield and platform together, forming a stable
continental core

Gneiss from ON
 Hadean – Very Young Earth
• Shortly after Earth
formed it was very hot
from heat generated by:
• colliding particles as
Earth accreted
• gravitational compression
• decay of short lived
radioactive isotopes
 Very Young Earth
• The young Earth during the Hadean was very
different from the later Precambrian Earth
• relative high frequency of meteorite and comet impacts
• lethal doses of ultraviolet radiation as no ozone layer
• Moon much closer to earth
• day only 10 hours
Precambrian Hadean
Formation of Continents
• Early earth surface was magma sea, gradually cooled to form
the crust.
• Continents did not always exist but grew from the chemical
differentiation of early, mafic magmas in the young hot earth.
“Volcanic Islands”
• Young Earth probably looked like Venus, only much hotter.

Venus lavascape
 Archean
Growth of the early continents
Island Arcs and other terranes accrete as
intervening ocean crust is subducted
Little Archean ocean crust survives, nearly all subducted
 Archean
Growth of the early continents
Sediments extend continental materials seaward
 Archean
Growth of the early continents
• Continent-Content collisions result in larger continents
• Again, not very big in Archean, Plate Tectonics too fast
 Archean
Growth of the early continents
Magmatism from Subduction Zones causes thickening
Archean Plate Tectonics
• Radiogenic heat production was
very high in the Archean
• Thus new crust was generated at spreading
ridges more quickly than today
• more volcanism and more rapid growth of continental
crust at convergent boundaries
• sedimentary sequences from passive margins are not
common from the Archean, suggesting that passive
margins were rare
• either divergent, transform or convergent
• An episode of rapid crustal growth between
3 and 2.5 bya likely resulted from accretion
along convergent plate boundaries
Proterozoic Earth History

 Major difference is the style of crustal evolution

– passive margin sediments are common
– crust accreted around continental nuclei to form large
cratons - Laurentia
Evolution of Proterozoic Crust
• 2 BYA the first major episode of Proterozoic
crustal evolution began
• orogens built large cratons by collisions of Archean crust
• Laurentia encompassing most of North America,
Greenland, (?and parts of Scotland and Scandinavia) was
formed by 1.8 BYA. (Grew along its southern margin)

Proterozoic
Proterozoic Supercontinent

 Several continents existed during the Proterozoic

 Moved around and united at times to form
supercontinent
 First super continent Columbia formed during
2.1–1.8 Bya
 Columbia began to fragment about 1.5–1.35
Bya
 1st Supercontinent Columbia
Columbia, also known as Nuna and Hudsonland, was one
of Earth's ancient supercontinents. It was first proposed by
Rogers & Santosh 2002, and is thought to have existed
approximately 1,820 to 1,500 million years ago in the
Paleoproterozoic Era. Zhao et al. 2002 proposed that the
assembly of the supercontinent Columbia was completed by
global-scale collisional events during 2.1–1.8 Ga.

Columbia consisted of proto-cratons that made up the cores

of the continents of Laurentia, Baltica, Ukrainian Shield,
Amazonian Shield, Australia, and possibly Siberia, North
China, and Kalaharia as well.

Columbia began to fragment about 1.5–1.35 Ga,

associated with continental rifting
Proterozoic Supercontinent
 Columbia fragmented 1.5-1.35 bya
 Laurentia, Australia, and Antarctica etc. collided
during the Late Proterozoic (1.3-1 BYA) to form
another supercontinent called Rodinia,
fragmented 750 MYA

Rodinia
 Proterozoic Deposits
 Thick sedimentary packages of sand, shale and
carbonates were deposited on passive margins
  Ophiolite sequences are
Proterozoic first observed from the
Rocks Proterozoic suggesting a
differentiation of the
Earth crust—oceanic and
continental
– passive margin sediments
– banded iron formations
– red beds. O2?

An Ophiolite sequence
 Proterozoic Glaciations & snowball earth?
 A major glaciation occurred during the Proterozoic
– Two episodes: An Early Proterozoic ice sheet centered
southwest of the Hudson Bay
– A Late Proterozoic glaciation that occurred on all
continents (snowball Earth),
– Glacial deposition (till) can be used to correlate rocks
from different continents (dropstone, varves, diamictite)
Episode 1:
The Huronian glaciation (or Makganyene glaciation) was a
glaciation that extended from 2.4 to 2.1 Gya, during the
Siderian and Rhyacian periods of the Paleoproterozoic era.
The Huronian glaciation followed the Great Oxygenation Event
(GOE), a time when increased atmospheric oxygen decreased
atmospheric methane. The oxygen combined with the
methane to form carbon dioxide and water, which do not
retain heat as well as methane does.

It is the oldest and longest ice age, occurring at a time when

only simple, unicellular life existed on Earth. This ice age led to
a mass extinction on Earth.

In 1907, Arthur Philemon Coleman first inferred a "lower Huronian ice age“ from
analysis of a geological formation near Lake Huron. This formation consists of two
non-glacial sediment deposits found between three horizons of glacial deposits of
the Huronian Supergroup, deposited between 2.5 and 2.2 billion years ago.
Episode 2:

The Cryogenian
(720 to 635 mya)
Glaciation
(include Sturtian and
Marinoan
glaciations) :

the greatest ice

ages known to have
occurred on Earth.
Controversial over
"Snowball Earth" or
“slushball Earth“?)
How did the Earth get out of the Snowball?

How did life survive through Snowball Earth?

 Plate Tectonics
 Plate tectonics similar to that of the present did
not begin until the Early Proterozoic
 Due to the higher internal heat of the Precambrian
Earth, plate likely moved much faster than today
 Origin and Evolution of the
Atmosphere and Oceans
 Volcanoes emit gases during
eruptions
 mainly water vapor + CO2
 to a lesser amount
 sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide,
nitrogen, hydrogen
 Archean likely erupted similar
gasses
 Rate of eruptions much higher
due to warmer Earth and
thereby higher rates of Mantle
convection
 Origin and Evolution of the
Atmosphere and Oceans
• Gasses from cooling magmas formed early
atmosphere mostly N2, CO2, with CH4, H2O

• Atmosphere not conducive to modern oxygen

breathing organisms.

• Little oxygen occurred in the atmosphere until the

evolution of photosynthetic organisms (Eubacteria)
3.5 billion years ago. Fully oxygenated about 1.8
billion years ago.
• It was not until 400 million years ago (Devonian) that
atmospheric oxygen reached its present level
 Origin and Evolution of the
Atmosphere and Oceans
 Once a differentiated core formed, the
thereby created magnetosphere allowed volcanic
gasses to accumulate as atmosphere
 water vapor from outgassing condensed, fell, and
collected in seas as Earth’s temperature cooled
 free oxygen was absent on the early Earth
 Archean sedimentary rocks contain Pyrite (FeS 2)
and Uraninite (UO2) which can only form in oxygen
deficient atmosphere (Rasmussen and Buick, 1999; Burron
et al., 2018; both on Geology)
 Proterozoic sedimentary rocks contains oxidized
iron showing some free oxygen was present by
then (BIF, red beds)
 Origin and Evolution of the
Atmosphere and Oceans
 Some oxygen was produced by ultraviolet radiation
of water molecules in the upper atmosphere
 resulted in ~2% free oxygen
 Most of the atmospheric oxygen was released as a
waste product by photosynthesizing cyanobacteria
 an example is cyanobacteria in stromatolites which
became common about 2.3 billion years ago
 The atmosphere gradually became strongly
oxidizing as it is now
 It was not until 400 million years ago (Devonian)
that atmospheric oxygen reached its present level
Photochemical dissociation & photosynthesis added free O2 to
atmosphere. Once free O2 was present, and ozone layer
formed in the upper atmosphere and blocked most incoming
ultraviolet radiation
 Origin and Evolution of the
Atmosphere and Oceans
• The change to an oxidizing atmosphere caused the
formation of banded iron formation about 2.5 BYA
• Banded iron formations (BIF)—silica and iron oxide
• Source of most of the worlds iron ore deposits
• Red beds of sandstone, siltstone and shale about 1.8 BYA
 Proterozoic Oxygen - Rich Atmosphere
 Eubacteria are photosynthetic
formed stromatolites along shores
 Free oxygen in atmosphere
 Band Iron Formations (common 3.2 – 2 bya)
become rare, probably depended on
disappearing conditions
 1.8 bya Redbeds begin forming when iron in
freshwater sediment is exposed to abundant
atmosphere oxygen
 Oxygen in atmosphere irradiated - Ozone layer
forms, protecting shallow water and land life
forms from UV
Great Oxidation Event (GOE)

also called the Great Oxygenation Event, Oxygen

Catastrophe, Oxygen Crisis, Oxygen Holocaust, or Oxygen
Revolution, was a time period when the Earth's atmosphere
and the shallow ocean experienced a rise in oxygen,
approximately 2.5/2.4 bya to 2.1/2.0 bya during the
Paleoproterozoic era
 Life - Its Origin
 Life was present on Earth at least 3.5 BYA
 Fossils
 Only fossils of bacteria are known from the
Archean, whereas today millions of species are
recognized

Vendian Dickinsonia
Vendian Spriggina
 Archean – Early Life
• Life originated when Earth’s primitive atmosphere had little or
no free oxygen
• Archean is biologically impoverished (mainly archaea and/or
bacteria) compared to the present due to:
• no oxygen
• no ozone layer (harmful UV radiation bombards the Earth)
• acidic oceans

Precambrian cyanobacteria Modern cyanobacteria

Bitter Springs chert, central Australia
 Definition of life
• A living organism must reproduce and practice
some kind of metabolism
• ensures long-term and short-term survival

• Two requirements are

necessary for the origin of life
• a source of the appropriate
elements from which organic
molecules could have been
synthesized
• an energy source to promote
chemical reactions that
synthesized organic molecules--
the most debatable
 Origin of life
 All organisms are composed mostly of C, H, N and O
 all of which were present in Earth’s early atmosphere
contributed as gasses from volcanic eruptions
 Energy needed for these elements to combine likely
from lightning and UV
radiation
 Steps involved to get from
these simple elements to
the earliest life forms
are still debated
 Laboratory experiments
have successfully created
20 amino acids typical of
organisms
 Origin of life
 Many scientists hypothesize that the earliest
organisms originated in the oceans or the ocean-
atmosphere interface
 Other scientists think that life evolved near
undersea hydrothermal vents in total darkness
 This later hypothesis is gaining strength as new
evidence and data for “primordial life-forms” are
collected from mid-oceanic ridges and
other hydrothermal hot spots
 a variety of invertebrates,
including shrimp-like arthropods,
crabs, clams and tube worms as
much as 3 m long has been found
 Where did life originate and how?

Extra-terrestrial/Cosmic Ancestry?

In 1969, a meteorite (left-over bits from the origin of

the solar system) landed near Allende, Mexico. The
Allende Meteorite (and others of its sort) have been
analyzed and found to contain amino acids, the
building blocks of proteins, i.e. basic to all life. The
idea hypothesized that life originated out in space
and came to earth inside a meteorite. The discovery
of the Martian meteorite in August 1996 and its
possible fossils have revived the thought of life
elsewhere in the Solar System.
 So, was the red rain of Kerala
extraterrestrial? Most scientists remain
skeptical although they don't rule out
the possibility. No one has yet come up
with a water-tight counter-explanation
for the strange cells. Meanwhile, those
in favour of the "alien" hypothesis say
it offers strong evidence for the theory
of panspermia – that life can be
seeded on worlds from space. A paper
by Louis and Kumara1 was published
in 2006 in the peer-reviewed journal
Astrophysics and Space Science.
Godfrey, Louis & A. Santhosh Kumar. "The Red Rain Phenomenon of Kerala and its Possible
Extraterrestrial Origin." Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 302, No. 1-4. (2006), pp. 175-
187.
McCafferty, P. "Bloody rain again! Red rain and meteors in history and myth." International
 Where did life originate and how?

Supernatural?: Since science is an attempt to

measure and study the natural world, this theory is
outside science (at least our current understanding
of science).
 Where did life originate and how?

Organic Chemical Evolution on Earth:

In 1922, Russian scientist and academician A.I.
Oparin,, hypothesized that cellular life was preceded
by a period of chemical evolution. These chemicals,
he argued, must have arisen spontaneously under
conditions existing billions of years ago (and quite
unlike current conditions).
 Where did life originate and how?
Organic Chemical Evolution on Earth:
In 1950s, then-graduate student Stanley Miller designed an
experimental test for Oparin's hypothesis by combining
atmospheric gases, electrical sparks and heat. The simple
inorganic molecules that Miller placed into his apparatus,
produced a variety of complex molecules including amino acids!

Stanley L. Miller, working in the laboratory of

Harold C. Urey at the University of Chicago.
 Where did life originate and how?

Organic Chemical Evolution on Earth:

The interactions of these molecules would have increased

as their concentrations increased. Reactions would have
led to the building of larger, more complex molecules. A
pre-cellular life would have began with the formation of
nucleic acids. Chemicals made by these nucleic acids
would have remained in proximity to the nucleic acids.
Eventually the pre-cells would have been enclosed in a
lipid-protein membrane, which would have resulted in the
first cells. (Further experiments demonstrated that drying
and re-wetting of these organic compounds could produce
cell-like membranes and simple proteins.)
Led to shallow water “primordial soup” theory.
 Problems is

– But organic compounds in shallow pools

would have been instantly destroyed by
ultraviolet radiation. Need an Oxygen-rich
atmosphere to make an Ozone-Layer
– 2 bya

No answer yet!
• The origin of life required the spontaneous
organization of self-replicating organic
molecules.

• The basic minimum requirements:

– A membrane-enclosed capsule to contain
the bioactive chemicals.

– Energy-capturing chemical reactions

capable of promoting other reactions.

– Some chemical system for replication (RNA-

DNA).
RNA and DNA
• RNA can replicate and act as a catalyst
that drives other nucleic acid reactions.
• Evolution of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic
acid)
easier once RNA was formed
in early oceans.
 Earliest Organisms
• There is no unequivocal evidence that dates the
transition from inorganic to organic evolution
• First organisms were likely
• Anaerobic, require no oxygen
• Dependent on external source of nutrients
• Lacked a cell nucleolus and other internal structures
• Reproduced asexually

• Most significant event in the Archean life history

was the development of photosynthesis whereby
organisms no longer were dependent on external
source of nutrients
Fossil evidence

supports the origins of life on earth earlier than 3.5

billion years ago. The Apex Chert microfossils from
Australia are complex enough that more primitive cells
must have existed earlier.

Trace of life-1

From rocks of the Ishua Super Group in Greenland come

possibly the earliest cells, as much as 3.8 billion years
old. The oldest known rocks on Earth maybe as old as
4.28 billion years old from NE, Quebec, Canada. Thus,
life appears to have begun soon after the cooling of the
Earth and formation of the atmosphere and oceans.
 Precambrian - Archean

Stromatolites
-definitive fossil life 3.5BYA
 Archean Organisms
• Stromatolites are cyanobacteria that originate when
sediment is trapped on sticky mats of algae
• They are at least 3.5 BYO and contributed to the
increasing oxygen levels of the Archean
 Proterozoic Organisms
• Like the Archean the Proterozoic was
dominated by a biota of single celled
bacteria without a cell nucleus
• In the Middle Proterozoic sexually
reproducing cells appeared
• This caused a marked increase in the rate of
evolution and many new organism started to
develop
• most variations (i.e. mutations) result from
sexual reproduction where an individual receives
half of its genetic makeup from each parent
 Gunflint Microfossils
~ 2.0 billion years ago.
The Gunflint is a succession of
peculiarly banded silica- and iron-rich
rocks -- iron oxide (hematite)
alternating with layers of red, yellow
and grey chert. The red chert, or
jasper, is particularly diagnostic of the
Gunflint. At some localities, the lower
part of the formation contains
stromatolites up a metre across and,
where these stromatolites are
preserved in jasper, the chert can be
polished to a stunningly beautiful red
rock. Jasper stromatolites from Gunflint
Formation near Mackies, northern
Ontario. GSC specimen. Photo by BDEC
(c)
 Proterozoic Organisms
• Another major event in life
history was the appearance of
eukaryotic cells in the early to
middle Proterozoic (1.7-1.4 BYA)
• Eukaryotic cells
• are large
• have a membrane bound nucleus
• nucleus contain genetic material
• reproduce sexually
• Occur mainly in multicelled,
aerobic organisms
• fungi, plants and animals
• could not have existed before
oxygen was present in the
atmosphere
 Eukaryotic Fossil Cells
 The Negaunee Iron Formation in Michigan
– which is 2.1 billion years old
– has yielded fossils now generally accepted
– as the oldest known eukaryotic cells
 Even though the Bitter Springs Formation
– of Australia is much younger
 1 billion years old
– it has some remarkable fossils of single-celled
eukaryotes
– that show evidence of meiosis and mitosis,
– processes carried out only by eukaryotic cells
 Oldest Eukaryotes
 This fossil from the 2.1-billion-year Negaunee
Iron Formation at Marquette, Michigan, is
probably some type of multicelled algae.

Grypania are fossils of The organism, with a size over 1 cm (to

what appear to have been 2.4 cm) (0.6mm wide) and consistent
photosynthetic alga. They form, could have been a
occur in rocks as old as giant bacterium, a bacterial colony, or
2.1 billion years. a eukaryotic alga.
 Proterozoic Organisms
 Carbonaceous impressions of Proterozoic multicellular
algae are known from many areas, the oldest are in the
2.1 BYO Negaunnee Iron Fm. In Michigan)

Carbonaceous impressions in Proterozoic rocks in the Little Belt

Mountains, Montana. Maybe impressions of multicellular algae, but
this is uncertain.
 Proterozoic Organisms
• This suggests multicellular organism existed
• These organisms consisting of cells specialized
to perform special functions like reproduction
and respiration
appeared in the
Late Proterozoic
• No fossil evidence of
the transition from
their unicellular
ancestors
 Ediacaran fauna Cyclomedusa sp.
Northwest Territories
 Ediacaran fauna is impressions of
multicellular, soft-bodied animals
in rocks
 preserved as molds and casts
 Likely similar to present day
jellyfish, sea pens and segmented
worms
 likely they lived in a nearshore,
shallow marine environment
 Ediacaran fauna widespread on
most continents
 Not common as fossils as they
lacked skeletons
 Present in 670 to 570 MYO
sandstones
Mistaken Point
Newfoundland
 Ediacara Fauna
Existed from ~ 600 million years ago to
~545 million year ago (or 670-570 mya?)
Since the discovery in Australia, the Ediacara Fauna has been
found at more than 30 localities worldwide on every continent
except S. America, Antarctica. In Canada, Ediacaran fossils are
found in the NWT, Yukon, BC, and Newfoundland (Mistaken
Point). The Mackenzie Mountains, NWT, has the thickest
continuous section of rock (2.5 kilometres) containing
Ediacaran fossils in the world.
 Late Proterozoic Worms
• Trace fossils are also preserved
in Late Proterozoic rocks, but very rare,
or even absent, before 700 Ma.
• Includes
• trails and burrows made by metazoans
• simple, shallow burrows
• E.g. an apparently backfilled burrow (Bergaueria), from Mackenzie
Mtns, NWT (800-1000 Ma)
• E.g. simple burrows (Planolites) from 700-959 Ma, Namibia.
• Younger Cambrian trace fossils are
more complex, diverse and numerous
• Mirrors the increase in complexity,
diversity and abundance of metazoan
body fossils as one passes from the
Proterozoic into the Cambrian
• Worm burrows in rocks
at least 700 myo are
known from several
areas, and worm-like
fossils associated with
fossil algae were found
in 700- to 900 myo
rocks in China.

Wormlike fossils from later

Proterozoic of China (GuiZhou?)
Late Proterozoic Shelly Fossils
• Small shells or scraps of
shell-like material and spicules
occur in late Proterozoic rocks
• evidence that the earliest stages of
skeletonization occurred during
the Late Proterozoic
• By the latest Proterozoic,
several skeletonized
animals probably existed
• e.g. Cloudina. small, conical
fossils made of CaCO3.
the oldest shelly animal
fossils in the record
(From Namibia)
 Resources in Precambrian Rocks
 Many ore deposits are found in Archean rocks but
mainly in Proterozoic rocks in Canada
• Gold  Nickel
• Yellowknife, NWT  Thompson, Mb
• Snow Lake, Mb
 Sudbury, Ont
• Red Lake, Ont
• Timmins, Ont  Voisey’s Bay,
• Uranium Labrador
• Cluff Lake, Sk  Copper-Zinc
• Key Lake, Sk
 Flin Flon, Mb
• Rabbit Lake, Sk
 Snow Lake, Mb
• Iron (BIF)
• Wawa, Ont  Timmins, Ont
• Schefferville, Que
 Precambrian Rocks of Manitoba
 Approximately 60 % of the province is underlain by
Precambrian rocks recording the earliest geological
history of Manitoba
 Major boundary between two
Precambrian provinces is located in
north-central Manitoba
 Churchill and Superior Provinces
 both provinces are subdivided into a
number of smaller sub-provinces
 subdivisions are based on age and
rock type
 Churchill-Superior boundary zone
marks the location of some of the
world’s largest nickel deposits
 best known is in Thompson