A special request from my fellow GSW member Nora Noffke (Old Dominion University), about a site in South Africa that Chris Rowan blogged about in May of this year:

The scenic Wit Mfolozi River Gorge in South Africa displays unique and spectacularly preserved sedimentary structures caused by microbial mats that colonized a sandy coastal area that are 3 billion years old. A comparison with modern microbial mats in a similar setting today suggests that the mat-constructing microbiota may have been cyanobacteria, possibly the oldest known in Earth history (GSA Today, October 2008).

In collaboration with the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM), the Geological Society of America (GSA) and as part of the Year of the Planet Earth (IYPE), the Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA) is establishing the "Wit Mfolozi River Area" as a Geoheritage Site. This Geoheritage Site will serve visiting scientists, students and the interested public in leaning more about the Archean world and Earth's earliest life.

With the support of funds raised around the world, GSSA will set up the logistical and administrative infrastructure necessary to preserve and make this site available to all. This includes, for example, the construction of secure access to the site, installment of signs explaining the details of biogenic sedimentary structures at different spots in the outcrop and also measures to protect the site from damaging flooding by the river.

For further information about the site contact Roger Price (Geosite Conservation Committee, GSSA - rprice@geoscience.org.za), Nora Nofke (Old Dominion University and GSA Division of Geobiology and Geomicrobiology - nnofke@odu.edu) or Wesley Hill (GSA - hill@geosociety.org).

For donations to the fund for the site please contact Theresa Scott (SEPM - tscott@sepm.org).

Thank you very much,
Nora Noffke

Labels: action, africa, blogs, field trips, gsw