Further sulfur and carbon isotope studies of late Archean iron-formations of the Canadian shield and the rise of sulfate reducing bacteria

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Sulfur and carbon contents and isotope ratios are reported for five Archean iron-formations, Helen, Nakina and Finlayson, Lumby and Bending Lake areas, distributed across 850 km of the Canadian shield all ∼2.7 Ga-old. A δ34S profile through a complete stratigraphic column (oxide facies excluded) of the Helen iron-formation shows a δ34S range of 30.2‰, mean δ34S value of 2.5‰ and a standard deviation (δi) of 7.3‰ In sharp contrast to the sulfide and siderite facies, the oxide facies in the column shows a uniform δ34S value close to zero. The δ34S values obtained for the other four iron-formations are again wide ranging, highly variable in the sulfide and pyrite—siderite facies, but uniform and close to zero for the oxide facies. The carbon in the oxide, siderite, chert facies has δ13C values of +2.3 to −1.1‰ in the range of Phanerozoic marine carbonates. However, the carbonates in the graphite rich sulfide facies have δ13C values as low as −7.6‰. The mixing of reduced carbon with marine carbonate is suggested to explain the light carbonate values. The reduced carbon associated with the light carbonate is also relatively light at up to δ13Corg = 33.5‰, but is in the range of other Precambrian values. Distal, high temperature, abiogenic sulfate reduction as a source of highly fractionated sulfides in the Archean iron-formations is ruled out on the basis of both isotopic and geologic evidence. It is concluded that only the bacterial reduction of sulfate at low temperatures could produce the wide ranging, highly variable δ34S values exhibited by these sulfides over large areas.