The Fortescue Group
Kilometres of lava and sediment pile onto the Pilbara, preserving the late Archean world in detail.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 150 million years
- Known to
- ± 30 million years
- Era
- Neoarchean, Archean
Between about 2.78 and 2.63 billion years ago a vast succession of basalt, sandstone and lake deposits accumulates across Western Australia. Because it was never deeply buried, it records surface conditions — lakes, rivers, shorelines, microbial mats — with unusual fidelity for rocks this old. Most of what is known about the Neoarchean environment comes from here and from the Abitibi belt in Canada.