Stromatolites
North of the Great Lakes lies the Canadian Shield, a very ancient geologic feature that bears Banded Iron Formation (BIF).
Formed 4 to 2.5 billion years ago, BIF is among Earth’s oldest rock formations. Some BIF contains fossils of Earth’s earliest life, stromatolites, which were algae mats formed on ancient seas. In recent Ice Ages, the glaciers that scoured the Canadian Shield brought rocks containing BIF and stromatolites to the southern shores of the Great Lakes.
NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars on February 18, 2021. Its mission, in part, is to look for stromatolites. How lucky I am to find ancient BIF containing stromatolites along Lake Michigan’s Left Coast.
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Unauthorized use is prohibited
ELIZABETH G FAGAN 