Snowball Earth's iron deposits may have formed through microbes living without sunlight

AI Summary

A study proposes that iron deposits formed during Snowball Earth conditions may have resulted from microbes that lived without sunlight. The research offers an alternative to the prevailing explanation that photosynthetic bacteria oxidized iron in ancient oceans.

Iron is one of the most abundant metals on Earth's surface, yet how such massive iron ore deposits formed throughout geological history has long remained a mystery. The prevailing theory has been that ancient photosynthetic bacteria oxidized iron, causing it to precipitate and accumulate in the oceans.