Mordenite and clinoptilolite have replaced glass shards and pumice in vitric tuffs that are the products of ash fall-out into lake basins of late Quaternary age in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The vitric tuffs are intercalated with siltstone and diatomite and overlie pumice-rich, rhyolitic ignimbrite. A Zr/TiO2-Nb/Y immobile element ratio plot indicates that the vitric tuffs, like the ignimbrite, are of rhyolitic composition. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy studies indicate that the mordenite and clinoptilolite are accompanied by authigenic K-feldspar and Opal-CT. The zeolites and other authigenic minerals are very fine grained (<10 µm), with open meshes of acicular mordenite crystals that result in low densities (0.7–1.0 g cm−3) in mordenite-rich tuffs. From Pearce element ratio analysis of whole-rock chemical analyses, only Na and K appear to have been mobilized during alteration. The zeolite deposits are associated with sinter, hydrothermal eruption breccias and silicified fault breccias that represent surface or near-surface manifestations of geothermal activity. Plant material extracted from a sinter overlying one of the deposits has a 14C age of 8498±60 BP, which is interpreted to be the age of zeolite deposition for this deposit. Mordenite and clinoptilolite occur in the lower-T (60–110°C) parts of some active or recently active geothermal systems elsewhere in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The main fluid in these systems is weakly saline (alkali-chloride) water heated by geothermal activity. The Ngakuru zeolite deposits are interpreted as the products of the reaction of vitric tuffs with this type of water in the near-surface part of recently active geothermal systems.

Jurassic siliceous hot-spring (sinter) deposits from Argentine Patagonia were evaluated to determine the distribution and preservation quality of their entombed microbial fabrics. Detailed study showed that the Claudia palaeo-geothermal field hosts the best-preserved sinter apron in the Deseado Massif geological province, where we also found hot-spring silica–biotic interactions extending into hydrothermally influenced fluvial and lacustrine settings. Carbonaceous material was identified by petrography and Raman spectroscopy mapping; it is inter-laminated with silica across proximal vent to distal marsh facies. The ubiquitous presence of microbial biosignatures has application to studies of hydrothermal settings of early life on Earth and potentially Mars.

Moganite, monoclinic SiO2, is a component of microcrystalline, quartz-bearing, sinters of New Zealand derived from crystallization of non-crystalline and paracrystalline opaline silicas. It occurs at levels of <13 vol.% of the SiO2 phases present in sinters between 20,000 and 200,000 y old but is generally either absent or below the level of detection in Tertiary sinters. Unambiguous identification of moganite is most readily accomplished by laser Raman spectroscopy; the technique allows individual microtextural elements of a sinter's fabric to be analysed. Conventional scanning X-ray powder diffraction procedures are limited in their ability to discern the characteristic moganite diffraction lines from the very similar quartz pattern, especially in those samples where moganite is at low concentration and/or unanticipated. However, powder diffraction, using a position-sensitive detector system, allows not only the identification of the moganite pattern in the presence of a large proportion of quartz, but also semiquantitative estimates of the different silica phases present in bulk sinter samples of ~450 mg. Moganite is part of the sinter maturation sequence. It occurs as a metastable phase that will ultimately transform to quartz, given sufficient time or a change in ambient conditions.

All samples of silica sinter, <2 y old taken from the discharge drain of the Wairakei geothermal power station and the Rainbow Terrace of Orakei Korako, consist of non-crystalline opal-A. This silica phase deposits directly upon the concrete drain wall and filamentous templets, extending from this wall, afforded by the microbial community present in the drain, whose nature was determined by a culture- independent strategy that entailed construction, fingerprinting and sequencing of a 16S clone library. The bacterial community is dominated by five major groups of organisms, present in approximately equal proportions, and which account for ∼50% of the community. None of the 16S sequences from these dominant groups yielded a perfect match with 16S sequences for named organisms in the international databases. However one dominant group clusters with Hydrogenophilus thermoluteus, a thermophilic filamentous bacterium, and two cluster with putatively thermophilic members of the Cyanobacteria and green non-sulphur bacteria respectively. Initial opal-A deposits rapidly as agglomerations of silica nanospheres that, in turn, form chains of coalesced, oblate, microspheres <0.4 x 0.2 mm about the barbicel-like filaments, to produce a mat of fine woven strands. The majority of individual filaments are <8 μm long and 0.8 mm wide but may be up to 55 mm long by 1 mm wide. Where laminar flow dominates, most strands develop parallel to the drain current but some strands crisscross while others protrude above the mat surface. Where flow is turbulent, strands lack preferred orientation and some adopt a helical form. In general, following deposition, the values of the scattering broadband at half (FWHM) and three quarters (FWTM) of the maximum intensity decrease with increasing sample age. The behaviour of the band at one quarter maximum intensity (FWQM) is less consistent, but, in general, the youngest sinters possess the highest FWQM, FWHM and FWTM values that prove independent of fabric type. Opal-A silica matures following its removal from the parent fluid, especially where the sinter surface is filmed by water. A continual movement of silica is shown by a second generation of microspheres formed on the silica mat surface, by an increase in size of the initial microspheres, and by an increase in maximum intensity of the X-ray scattering broadbands. Similar silica aging behaviour occurs among young sinters developed upon microbial mats at Orakei Korako. The deposition and aging processes accord with the known behaviour of juvenile opaline silica in both natural and artificial systems whose pH, temperature and dissolved salt content are similar to Wairakei and Rainbow terrace: gelling of silica is favoured by the high pH (∼8.3) and temperature (∼60°C) of the Wairakei discharge fluid but the high dissolved salt content of the water (Na+ = 930 μg/g, Ca2+ = 12 μg/g, Cl = 1500 μg/g) and abundant microbial community facilitate rapid and copious flocculation of solid silica within the drain, in contrast to the slower accumulation on the natural sinter terrace at lower temperature (30—45°C) from less saline dilute bicarbonate-chloride waters (Na+ = 180 μg/g, Ca2+ = 0.2 μg/g, Cl = 400 μg/g, pH = 8.1).

Laser Raman spectroscopy is particularly well suited for routine characterization of the crystalline and the better ordered paracrystalline silica phases occurring in silica sinters: opal-C, quartz and moganite. The non-crystalline and poorly ordered paracrystalline silica phases (opal-CT and opal-A) are identified with difficulty, partly as a result of the high level of fluorescence exhibited by the younger sinters that are dominated by these phases, and partly as a result of the ill-defined nature of the broad phonon scattering bands produced by them. Nonetheless, given the limited number of phases present and the high level of phonon scattering from the better ordered phases, judicious use of a Raman microprobe enables the character of most siliceous microtextural sinter components to be determined readily. Microprobe examination of a series of New Zealand sinters, ranging from Late Quaternary to Pliocene in age shows that a silica phase inhomogeneity that exists in some outcrops reflects an underlying phase heterogeneity obtaining in the microstructure of the sinter; it is a consequence of the phase transformation process. In the older sinters, quartz, moganite and opaline cristobalite may be present in a single fabric element but in quite different proportions to their abundance in adjacent elements. Identification of opaline lepispheres partially pseudomorphed by quartz+moganite and the association of quartz+moganite in microcrystals exhibiting common quartz forms, cautions against the use of morphology as a means of identifying silica phases at the microstructural level.

We present an initial report of a well-preserved and relatively diverse Gondwanan plant assemblage from Bahía Laura Group, Chon Aike Formation strata of the Estancia Flecha Negra area, central-western region of the Deseado Massif, Santa Cruz province, Patagonia, Argentina. The locality contains the first richly fossiliferous chert with a diverse and well-preserved plant assemblage reported from the Mesozoic which is demonstrably associated with hot spring activity. A compression flora and petrified forest contained in associated clastic and volcaniclastic environments provide an indication of regional plant diversity during this as yet poorly represented stratigraphic interval.

The Windyfield chert site is located 700 m NE of the original Rhynie chert locality at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Originally identified by concentrations of surface float material, a drilling and trenching programme of the area in 1997 revealed a chert ‘pod’ in situ interbedded with fluvial/lacustrine sandstones and hydrothermally altered shales. Chert morphologies identified from float blocks and trench material range from tabular beds to lenticular pods displaying massive, nodular, laminated and brecciated fabrics, and geyserite splash textures. A suite of floral and faunal associations, when combined with distinctive macro- and microscopic chert textures, has been used to interpret depositional conditions. Palaeoenvironments ranged from terrestrial laminated, brecciated and vegetated sinter sheets to low-temperature pools and marginal aquatic settings. The flora comprises six higher land plant species, nematophytes, charophytes, various fungi and probable cyanobacteria. Arthropods include branchiopod crustaceans, a euthycarcinoid, trigonotarbid arachnids, centipedes, eoarthropleurids and a possible hexapod. The biota of the Windyfield chert is closely comparable to that found in the Rhynie chert. Together, the Windyfield and Rhynie cherts contain the most diverse associated fossil arthropod fauna of terrestrial and freshwater origin from rocks of comparable age anywhere in the world.

The Lower Devonian plant- and arthropod-bearing cherts of the Rhynie area of Aberdeenshire, NE Scotland, were deposited from silica-rich waters emanating from the hot-springs of a precious-metal (Au) bearing epithermal system. Cherts were deposited at temperatures up to 100°C. The hot-springs were active in the waning phase of local volcanism and reworked volcanic debris is associated with the hot-spring system. Plant and animal communities inhabited a low energy alluvial plain with small ponds. Hot-springs deposited surficial sinter and silicified standing plants and underlying plant litter in a generally terrestrial setting, but aquatic organisms were present in low temperature pools within areas of sinter deposition. Silicification also affected plants and sediment in the shallow subsurface. The cherts display massive, vuggy, laminated, lenticular, nodular and brecciated textures in laterally impersistent beds. Faunal and floral variation between beds is of local significance, possibly reflecting general water availability. Variations in preservation of plants reflect not only degrees of imperfection in the permineralisation process, but also silicification at different times in the cycle of plant growth and decay.