Prebiotic Earth and Mineral Cycling

Important characteristics of the abiotic cycles in early Earth would have included (Fenchel et al., 1998)  

The last seems even more important than the early appearance of a small amount of oxygen. This process provides a reasonable abiological explanation for early banded iron formations (BIFs) and a basis for the evolution of a ferrous iron-based bacterial photosynthesis (Fenchel et al., 1998). 

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