This book illustrates a wide geographic and stratigraphic range of the features and structures to be seen within the modern and preserved rock record which can be ascribed to the presence and/or influence of microbials mats; with an accent on the Precambrian record. It restricts to the siliciclastic rock record and equivalent modern settings. Much work by individuals and teams has been done on these features in the past decade but the general sedimentologist and geologist are not well informed or even aware of the range and importance of these structures. This book illustrates and fully describes all the relevant features, to accoutn for their genesis and to place their occurrence within a conceptual-process-related, and time-palaeoenvironmental context, as well considering their implications for sequence architecture.
* The first full compilation of microbial mat features/structures preserved in the sliciclastic rock record
* High quality, full color photographs fully support the text
* Modern and ancient examples connect the formative processes and utilization of mat-related features in the interpretation of sedimentary rocks