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

In this book the editors strive to cover all primary (i.e. non-applied) topics in Precambrian geology in a non-partisan way, by using a large team of international authors to present their datasets and highly divergent viewpoints.

The chapters address: celestial origins of Earth and succeeding extraterrestrial impact events; generation of continental crust and the greenstone-granite debate; the interaction of mantle plumes and plate tectonics over Precambrian time; Precambrian volcanism, emphasising komatiite research; evolution and models for Earth's hydrosphere and atmosphere; evolution of life and its influence on Precambrian ocean chemistry and chemical sedimentation; sedimentation through Precambrian time; the application of sequence stratigraphy to the Precambrian rock record. Each topic is introduced and a non-partisan closing commentary provided at the end of each chapter. The final chapter blends the major geological events and rates at which important processes occurred into a synthesis, which postulates a number of "event clusters" in the Precambrian when significant changes occurred in many natural systems and geological environments.

Also available in paperback, ISBN: 0-444-51509-7