Marine Mineral Resources and Metals in the Oceans

金属采矿是全球经济中最大的部门之一，对陆地资源日益增长的需求正在鼓励对海洋的勘探。若干国家（中国、日本、韩国、俄罗斯、法国和德国）正在积极勘探海底热液喷口的矿藏，目的是在今后十年建立海底采矿业务。其他国家则租赁了部分专属经济区用于海上矿产勘探。《自然》和《科学》杂志最近的文章对这种发展的速度提出了担忧，因为缺乏协调一致的科学努力来了解资源的来源和分布以及采矿的可能影响。关于海底热液系统的多样性、从不同的火山和热液来源向海洋的金属负荷以及对其金属禀赋贡献最大的地质过程等重要问题仍然存在。这些方面即使在质量上也鲜为人知，但对于评估未来海洋矿物工业的生存能力是至关重要的。为了解决这些问题，我们正在参与一项国际努力，探索和记录海洋不同火山和构造环境中的矿藏。博士生们在前往大西洋中脊、冰岛、马里亚纳岛弧、美拉尼西亚群岛（巴布亚新几内亚、所罗门群岛、瓦努阿图）、汤加-克马德克岛弧和第勒尼安海的科学巡航中收集数据。他们利用海洋地质学、地球物理学和地球化学来确定对矿产资源分布的控制，影响金属收支的大规模岩浆和构造过程，以及金属在海洋环境中的行为。这一雄心勃勃的计划是通过与德国、美国、新西兰和其他提供船舶时间和其他海上资产的机构建立伙伴关系而实现的。同时，现代海底知识极大地增强了古火山带矿物禀赋模型，直接实际应用于陆地矿产勘查。我们的团队是世界上唯一一个将现代海洋矿物知识与古代矿床知识联系起来的科学团队。

Metal mining is one of the largest sectors of the global economy, and increasing demand for land-based resources is now encouraging exploration in the oceans. A number of countries (China, Japan, Korea, Russia, France and Germany) are actively exploring for mineral deposits at seafloor hydrothermal vents, with the aim of establishing seabed mining operations in the next decade. Other countries have leased portions of their EEZs for offshore mineral exploration. Recent articles in Nature and Science have raised concerns about the pace of this development in the absence of a coordinated scientific effort to understand the origin and distribution of the resources and the likely impacts of mining. Important questions remain about the diversity of seafloor hydrothermal systems, the loading of metals to the oceans from different volcanic and hydrothermal sources, and the geological processes that contribute most to their metal endowment. These aspects are poorly known, even at a qualitative level, but are fundamental to assessing the viability of a future marine minerals industry. To address these questions, we are participating in an international effort to explore and document the mineral deposits in different volcanic and tectonic settings of oceans. PhD students are gathering data on scientific cruises to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland, the Mariana arc, the Melanesian Archipelago (PNG, Solomons, Vanuatu), the Tonga-Kermadec arc, and in the Tyrrhenian Sea. They employ marine geology, geophysics, and geochemistry to identify the controls on the distribution of mineral resources, the large-scale magmatic and tectonic processes that influence metal budgets, and the behaviour of metals in the marine environment. This ambitious program is made possible by established partnerships with German, U.S., N.Z. and other institutions who are providing shiptime and other sea-going assets. At the same time, knowledge from the modern seafloor is greatly enhancing models of mineral endowment in ancient volcanic belts, with direct practical application to mineral exploration on land. Our group is one of the only scientific teams worldwide to bridge this knowledge of modern marine minerals to the understanding of ancient ore deposits.