Seafloor hydrothermal processes and deposits

该研究旨在解决火山岩中碱金属和贵金属矿体的形成之谜。其中一些矿床含有超过1亿吨的矿石。这些是罕见的，但非常可取的，因为它们代表了生产金属，如锌，铜，铅，银和金，是现代社会必不可少的最具成本效益的手段。加拿大的例子，如基德溪在安大略和布伦瑞克12号在新玩法将完全填补10个多伦多天空穹顶。我研究的另一个方面是确定成矿过程中沉积物中污染物的分散模式。这些污染物（各种金属、钡和砷）可能成为矿石的载体。另一个目的是了解微生物通过“生物矿化”过程在铁和其他贱金属矿石形成中的作用。一般认为，现在陆地上的矿体是在古代海洋中形成的，在那里，海水通过热的火山岩循环，被加热到350°C（热到足以熔化铅）。这些热海水从岩石中浸出金属，并将它们沉淀为矿物质，然后排放到海底。这些富含金属的温泉被称为“黑烟”，因为它们类似于一个肮脏的工业过程，在世界海洋的许多地区都有发现，但没有一个温泉的金属积累量接近基德溪。那么，基德溪的所有金属是从哪里来的呢？答案可能来自流体和气体，即所谓的“岩浆流体”，它直接来自地球深处产生熔岩的熔融岩石（“岩浆”）。当岩浆在海底地壳内上升时，它们冷却并释放出气体，主要是二氧化碳和水。这些气体中的一些被困在熔岩中的微小气泡中。在巴布亚新几内亚东部的海床上，用高分辨率显微镜和微分析仪器对这些岩石进行了仔细的研究，结果表明，意外捕获的岩浆流体中含有极其丰富的金属，比黑烟囱的热海水多出许多倍。

This research aims to solve the mystery of how base and precious metal ore bodies are formed in volcanic rocks. Some of these deposits contain in excess of 100 million tons of ore. These are rare but very desirable because they represent the most cost effective means of producing metals such as zinc, copper, lead, silver and gold that are essential to modern society. Canadian examples such as Kidd Creek in Ontario and Brunswick #12 in New Brunswick would completely fill 10 Toronto Skydomes. Another aspect of my research is to determine the dispersal patterns of contaminants in sediments resulting from the ore-forming process. These contaminants (various metals, barium and arsenic) may provide vectors towards ores. Yet another is to understand the role of micro-organisms in the formation or iron and other base metal ores through the process of "biomineralization". It is generally considered that ore bodies now on land formed in ancient seas where seawater circulating through hot volcanic rocks became heated to 350°C (hot enough to melt lead). This hot sea water leached metals from the rocks and precipitated them as minerals where it discharged onto the sea floor. These metal-rich hot springs, known as "black smokers" because they resemble a dirty industrial process, are found in many regions of the world's oceans but none of them are accumulating metals in anywhere near the amounts of a Kidd Creek. From where, then, did all the metals in Kidd Creek come? The answer may be from fluids and gases, a so-called "magmatic fluid", issuing directly from the molten rock ("magma") that produces lavas from the depths of the Earth. As magmas rise within the seafloor crust, they cool and give off gases, mostly carbon dioxide and water. Some of these gases are trapped as tiny bubbles within the lavas. Careful work on such rocks from the sea bed off eastern Papua New Guinea with high resolution microscopes and micro analytical instruments has shown that accidentally trapped magmatic fluids are extremely rich in metals, many times more that the hot sea water of the black smokers.