RELICS OF THERMOPHYLIC CHEMOLITHOTROPHIC MICROBIOTA IN THE ARCHEAN ROCKS FROM CENTRAL KARELIA
Tube-like microstructures were for the first time discovered in chemically precipitated siliceous rocks aged ca. 3 Ga on the Fennoscandian shield. The rocks are situated in the lower part of the oceanic paleovolcanic succession in the Vedlozero-Segozero greenstone belt (central Karelia). The microstructures found there are interpreted as fragments of filamentous microorganisms which had inhabited the zone of hydrothermal activity in a subaquatic environment.