Minnesota Iron (IMAGE)

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Minnesota Iron

Caption

Banded iron formations are the primary source of iron ore worldwide. These rocks, at Soudan Underground Mine State Park, Minnesota, shows banding caused by layers of different minerals in a sample 2.7 billion years old. The study by Johnson and Li at UW-Madison showed that half of the iron in such rocks was metabolized by microbes before being deposited in rocks.

Credit

Courtesy of Clark Johnson

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