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Mineralogy and Mineral Resources of the Ocean Floor

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Advanced Mineralogy

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Abstract

The pioneering HMS Challenger expedition of 1872-73 opened the era of great geologic discoveries on the sea floor. Unusual mineral deposits were among the remarkable findings (Murray and Renard 1891). On 18 February 1873, 160 miles southwest of the island of Ferro in the Canary Island Group, the Challenger recovered deep-sea manganese nodules enriched in metals such as copper, nickel, and cobalt. Similar nodules were subsequently recovered in many other places throughout the Atlantic, Indian, and especially Pacific oceans. At shallower depths along the continental margins the Challenger also recovered numerous samples of phosphorite, a sedimentary deposit that was known from marine sedimentary strata on land. Just at the time of the Challenger Expedition, the first such rock deposits, from South Carolina, began to be sold internationally as an alternative to then-predominant guano deposits as phosphorus fertilizer.

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Authors
  1. G. N. Baturin
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  2. N. E. Chelishchev
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  3. Yu. A. Bogdanov
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Faculty, University of Moscow, 119899, Moscow, Russia, CIS

    Arnold S. Marfunin

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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Baturin, G.N., Chelishchev, N.E., Bogdanov, Y.A. (1998). Mineralogy and Mineral Resources of the Ocean Floor. In: Marfunin, A.S. (eds) Advanced Mineralogy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18154-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18154-2_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-62108-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-18154-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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