Geobiology

This book describes microbially induced sedimentary structures as new group in the Classification of Primary Sedimentary Structures. Those structures rise from the interaction of benthic microorganisms with physical sediment dynamics caused by waves and currents. We can observe the formation of those features today in modern coastal settings, where the structures are much more common than stromatolites. However, fossil structures occur since the earliest Archean, and are abundant throughout Earth history. The structures constitute a significant archive for the understanding of Earth’s earliest worlds, and are important biosignatures for the detection of life on other planets. This book is for sedimentologists, paleontologists, microbiologists, and geobiologists likewise.

Nora Noffke is a leading expert on microbial mats and the sedimentary structures they form in sandy deposits. Her work has introduced the actuopaleontological approach in the study of Earth's earliest life. As editor of several books and special issues, she has supported the development of geobiology as a scientific discipline. Noffke has served on the NASA Science Definition Team for the Mars Rover Mission 2003, she has organized the First SEPM Field Conference on Siliciclastic Microbial Mats, and she has founded the Gordon Research Conference `Geobiology'. Noffke is associate professor at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA, and Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, USA.