A 2.3 billion year-old stromatolite was discovered on August 24 by Prof. Li Jianghai, a renowned expert on geology with the School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, while undertaking a field investigation on the southern slope of Wutaishan Mountain, Shanxi Province. The ball-shaped carbonate stromatolite measures 450 cm in diameter and 500 cm in height and is the biggest of its kind discovered so far in China.

Wutaishan Mountain provides an extensive record of geological evolution with strata showing the terrain of a number of different eras. The sedimentary stratigraphy, extending to a depth of tens of kilometers, is a perfect chronicle of the earth's evolution over the past 600 million years, and is a "natural museum of geological history".

This most recent find is a delicate rock with clear grains. Professor Li, who has spent more than ten years in intensive geological research, notes that stromatolites were formed by the sedimentation of blue-green algae in the early coastal environment. Similar rocks have been found previously, but nothing to compete with this one in terms of size, weight, and integrity.

The discovery provides a characteristic sample for geologists to increase their knowledge of the earth's early evolution.

(China.org.cn by Maverick Chen, August 26, 2008)