Modern silica sinter deposits from an island-arc setting and their potential for fossilizing plants
Abstract
Silica sinters deposited by hot-spring activities form Lagerstätten with numerous three-dimensional, cell-preserved fossils. The formation processes and depositional facies of silica sinters have been documented in large-scale geothermal provinces, including mantle-plume hotspots and mid-ocean ridges. Silica sinters in these areas preserve plants and microbes which are adapted to survive under geothermal stress, and which live inside the hot-spring system. Most plants are, however, intolerant to this specific environment. They are growing outside the hot springs, their chance for being embedded and preserved in the silica sinters is thus limited. Paleodiversity estimates and paleoecological reconstructions of past silica sinter Lagerstätten are therefore considered to be ambiguous. Here, we present….
Read the original article on Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Article inforamation
Aya Kubota, Ryo Taniguchi, Tomoyuki Ueda, Yasuhiro Iba, Modern silica sinter deposits from an island-arc setting and their potential for fossilizing plants, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2025
DOI:10.1016/j.palaeo.2025.113176
