Marine Mineral Resources and Metals in the Oceans

金属开采是全球经济的最大部门之一，对陆上资源日益增长的需求现在正在鼓励对海洋的勘探。一些国家(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，目标是在下一个十年建立海底采矿作业。其他国家也租用了部分专属经济区，用于近海矿产勘探。最近发表在《自然》和《科学》杂志上的文章对这种发展的速度提出了担忧，因为缺乏协调的科学努力来了解资源的来源和分布，以及采矿可能产生的影响。关于海底热液系统的多样性、来自不同火山和热液来源的金属向海洋的装载以及对其金属赋存作出最大贡献的地质过程，仍然存在一些重要问题。这些方面知之甚少，甚至在定性层面上也是如此，但它们对评估未来海洋矿产产业的可行性至关重要。为了解决这些问题，我们正在参与一项国际努力，以探索和记录海洋不同火山和构造背景下的矿藏。博士生正在收集前往中大西洋海岭、冰岛、马里亚纳弧、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-克尔马德克弧和第勒尼安海的科学邮轮数据。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、新西兰和其他机构建立合作伙伴关系实现的，这些机构提供海运和其他海上资产。同时，来自现代海底的知识极大地增强了古火山带的矿产赋存模式，直接应用于陆地上的矿产勘探。我们的团队是世界上仅有的几个将现代海洋矿物知识与古代矿床的理解联系起来的科学团队之一。

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.