Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP190102237

Funded Activity Summary

Banded iron formations: life, oxygen and ocean chemistry. This project aims to investigate the co-evolution of life and environments during Earth’s first two billion years using iron-rich chemical sediments deposited from global oceans. The project expects to generate knowledge of Earth’s transition into a planet habitable for complex life by combining nanoscale characterisation techniques, with laboratory experiments and theoretical modelling. Expected outcomes include transformative ideas about the role of life in iron and phosphorus cycles, the chemistry of the early ocean, ancient biological productivity, the antiquity of oxygenic photosynthesis and the rise of oxygen. The project will also deliver new conceptual models for the formation of the host-rocks for most of the world’s iron resources, improving how we explore for iron in the Earth’s crust. This should provide benefits to understanding geobiology on Earth and other planets.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-05-2019

End Date: 31-12-2023

Funding Scheme: Discovery Projects

Funding Amount: $430,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Geology | Geology not elsewhere classified | Sedimentology | Marine Geoscience

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Iron Ore Exploration | Marine Oceanic Processes (excl. climate related) |

Other Keywords

Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Geology | Geology not elsewhere classified | Iron Ore Exploration | Marine Geoscience | Marine Oceanic Processes (excl. climate related) | Sedimentology

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