The Miette Hot Springs in Jasper National Park, Alberta, have an average vent temperature of 51°C, and issue Ca, CO32- , and H2 S/SO42- rich water that precipitates gypsum, elemental sulphur, calcite, and strontianite, and hosts a rich microbial assemblage. Cooling and degassing induce precipitation but minerals accumulate in microbial mucus and adhere to microbial sheaths, and photosynthesis influences δ 13 Cmineral values.

Fossil tufa at Miette was generated by thermal springs issuing at 50-65°C between ∼4,500 and 2,500 years BP, and a warm spring of indeterminant age, that perched ∼30 m above the modern springs on an unstable slope. Variant flow path topography produced six tufa morphotypes, and differences in water temperature, style of flow, and flow path biology produced eight primary facies. Primary facies alternations are commonly sharp, representing abrupt changes in depositional conditions instigated by landslides and rockfalls. Diagenesis produced two other facies and obscured δ 13 C and δ18 O signatures.