Abstract
Sediments at DOMES Sites A, B and C are mixtures of pelagic clay, biogenic ooze, hydrogenous metals, and metalliferous sediment. The relative proportions of these components and the importance of local volcanic contributions can be estimated from bulk analyses of Si, A1, Fe, Ca, Mn, Ti and Na. Analyses of these and 20 additional elements for 118 samples indicate that average sediment at Sites A and B contains about 11% biogenic SiO2 and 70% pelagic clay, whereas that at Site C contains less than 2% biogenic SiO2, 87% pelagic clay and 1.8% metalliferous sediment.
A partitioning model based on element fractionation and inter-element correlation indicates that most of the Mn, Mo, Ni, and Pb is in the hydrogenous fraction of the sediment. The bulk composition of the hydrogenous fraction shows little variation from sample to sample and is comparable to the composition of the DOMES manganese nodules. The pelagic clay fraction is also remarkably homogeneous and is almost identical to average Pacific pelagic clay with respect to all major oxides except K2O.
Several cores at Site C have large components of metalliferous sediment. Fe2O3, SiO2, MgO, and P2O5 in excess of the amounts in pelagic clay are present in remarkably uniform proportions in the metalliferous fraction.
At Sites A and B, MgO in excess of the pelagic clay contribution has been taken up by very slowly deposited biogenic SiO2.
Factor analyses of the major oxides and partitioning by the Heath and Dymond (1977) model yield results in good agreement with the present partitioning model and provide additional insight into the distribution of minor elements not strongly confined to a single sediment fraction.
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Bischoff, J.L., Heath, G.R., Leinen, M. (1979). Geochemistry of Deep-Sea Sediments from the Pacific Manganese Nodule Province: DOMES Sites A, B, and C. In: Bischoff, J.L., Piper, D.Z. (eds) Marine Geology and Oceanography of the Pacific Manganese Nodule Province. Marine Science, vol 9. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3518-4_12
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