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STROMATOLITES: Interaction of Microbes with Sediments pp 273–287Cite as

Lower Cretaceous Stromatolites in Far East Asia: Examples in Japan and Korea

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Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 18))

Abstract

The morphology, structure, and mode of occurrence of the Early Cretaceous nonmarine stromatolites from the Kanmon Group in northern Kyushu (SW Japan) and from the Gyeongsang Supergroup in South Korea are reviewed. These stromatolites were formed likely in intertidal–supratidal settings of a large intracontinental lake (the Kanmon–Gyeongsang Basin) that were occasionally exposed to arid condition. Seven macrostructures of stromatolite are recognized. In particular, three of them are dominant, i.e., flat type, columnar type, and domal type. The thickness of clastic layers of the stromatolites and the associated sedimentary facies suggest that the flux of terrigenous clastics into the depositional site may have controlled the morphological diversity of the stromatolites, i.e., the flat type occurred in very shallow nearshore (supratidal), while the domal type in relatively deeper, offshore (intertidal).

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 Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Vinod C. Tewari for giving us a chance of writing this article. We thank Prof. Kazushige Tanabe for giving us many beneficial and critical advices about the Kanmon stromatolites. We also thank Dr. Atsushi Fujii for giving us valuable information about the locality of Kanmon stromatolites. This study was supported by Grant-in-Aid from Japan Society of Promotion of Sciences (no. 20224012 to Y.I.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science and Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan

    Atsushi Yamamoto & Yukio Isozaki

  2. Department of Mineral and Mining Engineering, Sangji University, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 220-702, South Korea

    Kwang-Choon Lee

  3. Department of Life Science, Kinki University, Kowakae, Osaka, 577-8502, Japan

    Atsushi Yamamoto

Authors
  1. Atsushi Yamamoto
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  2. Kwang-Choon Lee
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  3. Yukio Isozaki
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Correspondence to Atsushi Yamamoto .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Sedimentology Group, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, General Mahadeo Singh Road 33, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248001, India

    Vinod Tewari

  2. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

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Yamamoto, A., Lee, KC., Isozaki, Y. (2011). Lower Cretaceous Stromatolites in Far East Asia: Examples in Japan and Korea. In: Tewari, V., Seckbach, J. (eds) STROMATOLITES: Interaction of Microbes with Sediments. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 18. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0397-1_12

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