Local Government
East Pilbara
Region
Pilbara
34 km W on Six Mile Creek Marble Bar
East Pilbara
Pilbara
Type | Status | Date | Documents | More information |
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(no listings) |
Type | Status | Date | Documents |
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RHP - To be assessed | Current | 25 Aug 2006 |
Type | Status | Date | Grading/Management | More information | |
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Category | Description | ||||
Register of the National Estate | Indicative Place |
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Classified by the National Trust | Classified {Lscpe} | 01 Jun 1995 |
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Strelley Pool Chert has great value to the scientific community, for whom it represents evidence for the earliest phase of life on Earth. This value has been demonstrated in June 2006, by calls from prominent Australian scientists for protection to be afforded to the site. Strelley Pool Chert has value to the scientific community as a source of information that can provide information about life on other planets, including Mars.
Strelley Pool contains some of the best-preserved and most widespread exposures of stromatolites, which are evidence for the earliest known life on Earth. The place is in a picturesque gorge section of the Pilbara region. The approximately 3420 million-year-old Strelley Pool Chert is a laminated grey and white unit within the Warrawoona Group, Pilbara Supergroup, which is part of the East Pilbara Granite-Greenstone Terrane in the Pilbara Craton. The Strelley Pool Chert is typically 30m thick and consists of a basal sandstone unit, middle unit of carbonate that is largely affected by later silicification, and an upper unit of sandstone and conglomerate. Stromatolites have been found in the carbonate and upper sandstone units, and include steep-sided conical forms and rare branching forms.
It is thought that the stromatolites were developed in a very shallow, hyper-saline water body. The stromatolitic communities probably consisted of filament like, light responsive forms that may have been capable of moving to light through a gliding movement. Their existence was essential for later developments, as the micro-organisms slowly produced the oxygen that allowed higher organisms to develop almost two billion years later.
Library Id | Title | Medium | Year Of Publication |
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2398 | National Estate Program : documentation of geological sites and monuments; Nomination of geological monument for the register of the National Estate: Dingo Gap, Bugle Gap, Bringo Railway cutting, Molecap Hill, Veevers Crater, Dalgaranga Crater, North Pole, | Report | 1989 |
1180 | Strelley pool west | Report | 1995 |
Geological monument
Epoch | General | Specific |
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Original Use | OTHER | Other |
Present Use | SOCIAL\RECREATIONAL | Other |
General | Specific |
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DEMOGRAPHIC SETTLEMENT & MOBILITY | Environmental change |
This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.