Greenstone belt Belingwe

Bickle M. J., Martin A., and Nisbet E. G. (1975) Basaltic and peridotitic komatiites, stromatolites, and a basal unconformity in the Belingwe Greenstone belt, Rhodesia. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 27, 155-162. 

Martin A., Nisbet E. G., and Bickle M. J. (1980) Archean stromatolites of the Belingwe greenstone belt, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia). Precamb. Res. 13, 337-362. 

Nisbet, E. G., Bickle, M. J. Martin, A. 1977. The mafic and ultramaflc lavas of the Belingwe Greenstone Belt, Rhodesia. Journal of Petrology, 18, 521-566. 

Kusky, T. M. Kidd, W. S. F. 1992. Remnants of an Archean oceanic plateau, Belingwe greenstone belt, Zimbabwe. Geology, 20, 43-46. 

The type stratigraphy of the Upper Bulawayan Group is in the Belingwe greenstone belt (Wilson... 

Fig. 3. Geological maps for selected areas in three greenstone belts, (a) Overview map. (b) Belingwe greenstone belt (modified from Hofmann et al. 2001 >).

Brake, C. 1996. Tholeiitic magmatism in the Belingwe greenstone belt, Zimbabwe. PhD thesis. University of Edinburgh. 

Hofmann, A., Dirks, P. Jelsma, H. 2001a. Late Archaean foreland basin evolution, Belingwe greenstone belt, Zimbabwe. Sedimentary Geology, 141-142, 131-168. 

Fig. 1. The Belingwe greenstone belt, Zimbabwe, showing sample locations. The thin Manjeri Fm (including Spring Valley, Shavi, Rubweruchena and Jimmy Members, not shown here) outcrops along the base of the main (Upper Greenstones) syncline.

Abell, P. I., McClory, J., Martin, A. Nisbet, E. G. 1985. Archaean stromatolites from the Ngesi Group, Belingwe Greenstone Belt, Zimbabwe. Preservation and stable isotopes - preliminary results. Precambrian Research, 27, 357-383. 

Bickle, M. j. Nisbet, E. G. 1993. The Geology of the Belingwe Greenstone Belt a Study of the Evolution of Archaean Continental Crust. Geological Society of Zimbabwe Special Publication, 2. 

More controversial is whether there is evidence for former life in greenstone sediments. At present the much publicized carbon isotope evidence for life in the 3.8 Ga Isua succession (Rosing, 1999) is under severe scrutiny. This is discussed in some detail in Chapter 6 (Section 6.3.2.1). In contrast stromatolite fossils have been documented in greenstone belt sediments from about 3.5 Ga onwards, and sulfur isotope evidence from the Belingwe Greenstone Belt demonstrates that there were complex algal communities by 2.7 Ga (Grassineau et al., 2001 - see Chapter 6, Section 6.3). 

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