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Pacific EEZ Minerals

Overview

Little is known about the resource potential of the vast mineral deposits that occur within the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the United States.  The U.S. EEZ encompasses 3.4 million square nautical miles, an area about 20% greater than the entire land area of the U.S.  Quantitative information about U.S. EEZ resources is essential in order for the Federal and State governments to make informed decisions about

competitive land(sea)-use issues, outer continental margin boundary negotiations, environmental contaminant issues, energy, mineral, and biologic resources potential, including homeland security concerns of self sufficiency in energy and strategic and critical mineral resources, and rapidly accelerating consumption of metals in Asia. This project addresses the mineral resources that occur within the EEZ of Pacific coastal States and Pacific islands of U.S. interest. Start/End Dates 10/1/2003 - 9/30/2010 Location Pacific coastal States and Pacific islands of U.S. interest Project Chief James R. Hein

Unofficial Exclusive Economic Zone (200 nautical-mile limits) for island nations within the Pacific, only a few of which are named on this figure; those marked in purple are the EEZs of Pacific islands of U.S. affiliation, exclusive of Hawai'i. CNMI = Commonweath of the Northern Mariana Islands; JA = Johnston Atoll; RMI = Republic of the Marshall Islands; FSM = Federated States of Micronesia; KIR = Kiribati; Va = Vanuatu. Most seamounts in the Pacific are associated with the islands that compose these nations and consequently much of the potential Fe-Mn crust resource occurs within these EEZs (modified from the web site of SOPAC, www.sopac.org.fj)

Objectives

This project's goals are to:

1. provide an assessment of the state-of-knowledge of the mineral resources within the EEZs of Pacific islands of U.S. interest;
2. analyze and synthesize existing published USGS and other compatible data;
3. compile, analyze, and make available unpublished USGS data;
4. collect new data for existing samples if warranted to produce more comprehensive and integrated USGS reports;
5. collect new samples and data from ships of opportunity for seabed mineral deposits;
6. provide value-added products based on prior field programs and existing data;
7. provide liaison participation and expertise on marine mineral issues to national and international organizations, institutes, and agencies; and
8. provide outreach activities directed to education on EEZ mineral issues.

Approach

The overall strategy is to provide societal relevant coastal and marine resource information and research for the EEZ of Pacific coastal States and Pacific islands and island Nations of U.S. interest.  Specifically, these islands include the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Is.; U.S. Territories of Guam, Midway I., Wake I., Johnston I., Jarvis I., Howland-Baker Is., Kingman-Palmyra Is., and American Samoa; Compact of Free Association Nations including Republic of the Marshall Is., Republic of Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia; and the State of Hawaii. The first product will be an assessment of the state-of-knowledge of resources in the EEZ of these islands, which will be carried out by compiling published data, acquiring unpublished data, and sharing data with institutes and agencies that have worked in those regions. Information, when available, will be compiled for aggregate, precious coral, phosphorite, cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts and nodules, hydrothermal manganese, polymetallic sulfides, and epithermal gold and base metals. Those data will be analyzed and published along with accompanying maps as a USGS Circular. Data gaps will be identified and recommendations made. Follow-on work will include a resource analysis, to the extent possible, of the Johnston Island and the Marshall Islands EEZs, the two areas that have seen the greatest number of research expeditions and therefore the greatest amount of available minerals information. The Free University of Berlin's database will be combined with the USGS data base for a more complete and integrated analysis.  New samples and data will be collected on ships of opportunity to help fill the data gaps. Value-added efforts will focus on compiling, analyzing, and releasing unpublished USGS minerals data for:

1. the EEZ off California;
2. a north-south transect from the Marshall Islands to American Samoa, to look at latitude (spatial) controls on mineralization;
3. mid-northern latitudes to fill a geographic data gap, where copper-rich samples have been collected; and
4. NOAA/USGS collaborative data from the CNMI.

If minor amounts of additional analytical data for available samples are required to make the four value-added works more comprehensive, then those data will be obtained.

Relevance and Impact

A critical concern of coastal Nations today is the issue of the limits of the outer continental margin and the possibility of extending EEZ boundaries based on new geologic criteria. Knowledge of potential mineral resources in the EEZ and adjacent areas is essential to that evaluation. Many Pacific island Nations have few options for generating revenue and viable EEZ mineral resources may help ameliorate that problem. Many U.S. Government agencies (USGS, DOS, MMS, NOAA) and international agencies (SOPAC, ISA) regularly receive requests from Pacific island Nations for information about their EEZ resources. New concerns about homeland security in terms of self sufficiency in energy and critical and strategic mineral resources demands that potential resource contributions from the EEZ be understood and considered in the overall resource potential of the U.S. The USGS has a long history of data analyses and collection from Pacific EEZs. That knowledge base, combined with published and unpublished databases, can be used to provide products that will clearly delineate our state-of-knowledge and evaluate what needs to be learned in order to realize quantitative resource assessments. At a time when on-land mining faces ever-increasing environmental concerns and policy makers are confronted with increasingly more difficult land-use priorities, it behooves us to understand the distribution of minerals offshore and their resource potential.

A major outcome of this project in FY05 (October 2004-September 2005) was completion of a major, comprehensive work on the state-of-knowledge of marine mineral resources in Pacific Islands EEZs of U.S. affiliations. A major conclusion is that information available is minimal to nonexistent for all the EEZs except those of Johnston I. and the Marshall Is., where a moderate amount of data are available. The gaps in our knowledge base are huge. Besides the request by DOS for our American Samoa resource data (see above), the U.N. International Seabed Authority requested our data for marine mineral deposits, which is being used to develop criteria for the mining of mineral deposits from the deep seabed. Considerable headway was made in establishing lease block sizes and numbers and environmental issues for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts and polymetallic sulfides. The Project Chief was invited to participate in the deliberations and present USGS data; he was one of only three scientists from the global scientific community to be invited as an expert witness for science. Other organizations dealing with Law of Sea issues and marine resources have contacted the Project Chief for consultations, for example, the Engineering Committee on Oceanic Resources.

Map below shows main potential deep-water mineral deposit type and contained metals for each Pacific EEZ of U.S. affiliation.

Products

PUBLISHED REPORTS

Balaram, V., Banakar, V.K., Hein, J.R., and Rao, C.R.M., 2005.  Concentrations of the platinum-group elements (PGE) and gold in manganese nodule samples and their precise determination. In: Törmänen, T.O. and Alapieti, T.T., eds., Extended Abstracts, 10^th International Platinum Symposium, 8-11 August 2005, Oulu, Finland, p. 33-36.

Hein, J.R., 2003.  Polymetallic nodules and crusts.  Encyclopedia of Oceanography and Marine Science, Moschovitis Publishing, New York. 

Hein, J.R., 2003.  Deep-Sea Mining.  Encyclopedia of Oceanography and Marine Science, Moschovitis Publishing, New York.

Hein, J.R., Koschinsky, A., and Halliday, A.N., 2003.  Global occurrence of tellurium-rich ferromanganese oxyhydroxide crusts and a model for the enrichment of tellurium.  Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 67 (6), p. 1117-1127.

Hein, J.R., 2003. Reviews: Phosphates: Geochemical, Geobiological, and Materials Importance; Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, v. 48.  Economic Geology, v. 98(5), p. 1053-1054.  

Hein, J.R., 2004.  Cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts:  Global distribution, composition, origin and research activities. In: Minerals Other than Polymetallic Nodules of the International Seabed Area; Proceedings of a Workshop held on 26-30 June 2000, International Seabed Authority, Kingston, Jamaica, volume 1, p. 188-256.

Hein, J.R., Koschinsky, A., and McIntyre, B., 2005.  The global enrichment of platinum group elements in marine ferromanganese crusts.  In: Törmänen, T.O. and Alapieti, T.T., eds., Extended Abstracts, 10^th International Platinum Symposium, 7-11 August 2005, Oulu, Finland, p. 98-101.

Koschinsky, A. and Hein, J.R., 2003.  Uptake of elements from seawater by ferromanganese crusts:  solid phase association and seawater speciation.  Marine Geology, v. 198, p. 331-351.

Koschinsky, A., Hein, J.R., and Bau, M., 2004. The importance of surface oxidation on Mn and Fe oxides for the fractionation of Te and Se. Proceedings of the 11^th International Symposium on Water-Rock Interaction, June-July, 2004, Saratoga Springs, NY, Taylor and Francis Group, London, p. 1323-1326. 

Koschinsky, A., Hein, J.R., and Audroing, J., 2005.  The enrichment of platinum and the fractionation of Pt from Pd in marine ferromanganese crusts. In: Törmänen, T.O. and Alapieti, T.T., eds., Extended Abstracts,  10^th International Platinum Symposium, 7-11 August 2005, Oulu, Finland, p. 429-432.

Koski, R.A., and Hein, J.R., 2004. Stratiform barite deposits in the Roberts Mountains Allochthon, Nevada: A review of potential analogs in modern sea-floor environments.  In:  Bliss, J.D., Moyle, P.R., and Long, K.R. (eds.), Contributions to industrial minerals research: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2209-H, 17 pp; (http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/b2209-h/).

Lee, T.-G., Hein, J.R., Lee, K., Moon, J.-W., and Ko, Y.-T., 2005.  Sub-seafloor acoustic characterization of seamounts near the Ogasawara Fracture Zone in the western Pacific using chirp (3-7 kHz) subbottom profiles.  Deep-Sea Research I, v. 52, p. 1932-1956. 

Levasseur, S., Frank, M., Hein, J.R., and Halliday, A.N., 2004.  The global variation in the iron isotope composition of marine hydrogenetic ferromanganese deposits: Implications for seawater chemistry?  Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 224, p. 91-105.

Polgári, M., Szabó-Drubina, M., and Hein, J.R., 2003.  Phosphogenesis in Jurassic black shale-hosted Mn-carbonate deposit, Úrkút-Eplény, Hungary:  Investigations of archive sample drillcore Úrkút-136.  Földtani Közlöny, v. 133/1, p. 37-48. 

Polgári, M., Szabó-Drubina, M., Hein, J.R., and Szabó, Z., 2003.  Analysis of an archive sample from the carbonatic manganese ore sequence, Eplény, Hungary.  Földtani Közlöny, v. 133/1, p. 21-35.

Polgári, M., Szabó, Z, Szabó-Drubina, M., Hein, J.R., and Yeh, H.-W., 2005.  A porous silica rock (“Tripoli”) in the footwall of the Jurassic Úrkút manganese deposit, Hungary: Composition, and origin through carbonate dissolution. Sedimentary Geology, v. 177, p. 87-96.

Rehkämper, M., Frank, M., Hein, J.R., Halliday, A., 2004. Cenozoic marine geochemistry of thallium deduced from isotopic studies of ferromanganese crusts and pelagic sediments.  Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 219, p. 77-91. 

van de Flierdt, T., Frank, M., Halliday, A.N., Hein, J.R., Hattendorf, B., Günther, D., and Kubik, P., 2003.  Lead isotopes in North Pacific deep water--implications for past changes in input sources and circulation patterns.  Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 209, p. 149-164. 

van de Flierdt, T., Frank, M., Halliday, A.N., Hein, J.R., Hattendorf, B., Günther, D., and Kubik, P.W., 2004.  Deep and bottom water export from the Southern Ocean to the Pacific over the past 38 million years.  Paleoceanography, 19, PA1020, doi:10.1029/2003PA000923.

van de Flierdt, T., Frank, M., Halliday, A.N., Hein, J.R., Hattendorf, B., Günther, D., and Kubik, P.W., 2004. Tracing the history of submarine hydrothermal inputs and the significance of hydrothermal hafnium for the seawater budget—a combined Pb-Hf-Nd isotope approach.  Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 222, p. 259-273. 

van de Flierdt, T., Frank, M., Lee, D.-C., Halliday, A.N., Reynolds, B.C., and Hein, J.R., 2004.  New constraints on the sources and behavior of neodymium and hafnium in seawater from Pacific Ocean ferromanganese crusts.  Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 68, p. 3827-3843.

REPORTS SUBMITTED OR ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION:

Balaram, V., Mathur, R., Banakar, V.K., Hein, J.R., Rao, C.R.M., Rao, T.G., and Dasaram, B., 2005.  Determination of the platinum-group elements and gold in ferromanganese nodule reference samples by nickel sulfide fire-assay and Te-co precipitation with ICP-MS.  Indian Journal of Marine Sciences (submitted). 

Banakar, V.K., Hein, J.R., Rajani, R.P., and Chodankar, A.R., 2005.  Platinum group elements in ferromanganese crusts of the Afanasiy-Nikitin Seamount, Equatorial Indian Ocean:  Source and fractionation.  Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (in revision). 

Bolz, V., Levasseur, S., Frank, M., Hein, J.R., and Halliday, A.N., 2005.  Osmium isotope stratigraphy of ferromanganese crusts.  Earth and Planetary Science Letters (in press). 

Chan, L.-H. and Hein, J.R., 2005.  Lithium contents and isotopic compositions of ferromanganese deposits from the global oceans.  Deep-Sea Research II (submitted). 

Embley, R.W., Chadwick, W.W., Jr., Baker, E.T., Butterfield, D.A., Resing, J.A., de Ronde, C.E., Tunnicliffe, V., Lupton, J.E., Juniper, K.S., Rubin, K.H., Stern, R.J., Lebon, G.T., Nakamura, K.-I., Merle, S.G., Hein, J.R., and Wiens, D.P., 2005.  Eruptive Activity at a submarine arc volcano.  Nature (submitted).  

Hein, J.R., Koschinsky, A., and McIntyre, B.R., 2005.  Mercury- and silver-rich ferromanganese-oxides, Southern California Borderland:  Deposit model and environmental implications.  Economic Geology (in press). 

Hein, J.R., McIntyre, B.R., and Piper, D.Z., 2005.  State of knowledge of marine mineral resources in Exclusive Economic Zones of Pacific islands of U.S. affiliation, excluding Hawaii.  U.S. Geological Survey Circular (in press).   

Hein, J.R., Zierenberg, R.A., Maynard, J.B., and Hannington, M.D., 2005.  Multifarious barite-forming environments along a rifted continental margin, southern California Borderland.  Deep-Sea Research II (submitted). 

Lee, T.-G., Lee, K., Hein, J.R., and Moon, J.-W., 2005.  Geophysical investigation of seamounts near the Ogasawara Fracture Zone, western Pacific.  Earth, Planets, and Space (submitted).

PRESENTATIONS WITH PUBLISHED ABSTRACTS

Bolz, V., Levasseur, S., Frank, M., Hein, J., and Halliday, A., 2004.  Osmium isotope stratigraphy of ferromanganese crusts. Abstracts, December AGU, San Francisco, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union.

Banakar, V.K., Rajani, R.P., and Hein, J.R., 2005.  Genesis and growth history of ferromanganese encrustations from Afanasiy-Nikitin Seamounts in the equatorial India Ocean.  Abstracts and Program, 35^th Underwater Mining Institute, 1-6 November, Monterey, California, p. (in press).

Chadwick, W.W., Embley, R.W., de Ronde, C., Stern, R.J., Hein, J., Merle, S.G., and Ristau, S., 2004.  The geologic setting of hydrothermal vents at Mariana arc submarine volcanoes:  High-resolution bathymetry and ROV observations. Abstracts, December AGU, San Francisco, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, on CD.

Chan, L.H. and Hein, J.R., 2004.  Lithium contents and isotopes of ferromanganese deposits from the global oceans. Abstracts, December AGU, San Francisco, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, on CD.

de Ronde, C.E.J., Hein, J.R., Embley, R.W., and Stern, R.J., 2004.  Hydrothermal mineralization along the volcanically active Mariana arc. Abstracts, December AGU, San Francisco, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, on CD.

Embley, R.W., Baker, E.T., Butterfield, D., Chadwick, W.W., Jr., de Ronde, C., Dower, J., Evans, L., Hein, J., Juniper, K., Lebon, G., Lupton, J.E., Merle, S., Metaxas, A., Nakamura, K., Resing, J.E., Roe, K., Stern, R., Tunnicliffe, V., 2004.  Active volcanic and hydrothermal processes at NW Rota-1 submarine volcano:  Mariana subduction zone. Abstracts, December AGU, San Francisco, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, on CD.

Hein, J.R., McIntyre, B.R., and Staudigel, H., 2004. Geographic and oceanographic controls on Fe-Mn crust chemistry along a NW-SE transect of the equatorial Pacific. Abstracts with Program of the 32^nd International Geological Congress, 20-28 August, Florence Italy, part 2, p. 1197-1198.

Hein, J.R., McIntyre, B., and Staudigel, H., 2003.  Latitudinal changes in Fe-Mn oxide crust chemistry:  Detailed NW-SE transect of the Equatorial Pacific, Marshall Islands to Samoa.  Proceedings of 33^rd Underwater Mining Institute Conference, Cheju I., Korea, October 2003, extended abstract, p. 29-31.

Hein, J.R., Clague, D.A., McIntyre, B.R., Paduan, J., and Davis, A.S., 2004.  Formation of Fe-Mn crusts under conditions of strong upwelling at a continental margin: Rodriguez Seamount, offshore central California.  Proceedings of the 34^th Underwater Mining Institute, September 2003, London, p. 41-43.

Koschinsky, A. and Hein, J.R., 2003.  Scavenging and fractionation of selenium and tellurium on Mn oxides and Fe oxyhydroxide.  Abstracts and Program, German Mineralogical Society and Geological Society Annual Meeting, Sept., 2003; European Journal of Mineralogy, v. 16 (1), p. 106.

Koski, R.A. and Hein, J.R., 2003.  Sea-floor barite deposits at active continental margins: Analogues for stratiform deposits in Nevada?  39^th Industrial Minerals Forum, Sparks, Nevada, May 2003. 

Levasseur, S., Frank, M., Hein, J., and Halliday, A.N., 2003.  Iron isotope variations in marine ferromanganese deposits. EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, Nice, France, April 2003.

Rehkämper, M., Nielsen, S., Frank, M., Hein, J. and Halliday, A., 2003. Cenozoic marine geochemistry of thallium deduced from isotopic studies of ferromanganese crusts. EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, Nice, France, April 2003.

Stakes, D., Perfit, M., Wheat, C.G., Delong, E., Ramirez, T., Koski, R.A., and Hein, J.R., 2003.  Evidence of off-Axis volcanism and hydrothermal venting along the Cleft segment of the southern Juan de Fuca Ridge.  EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, Nice, France, April 2003. 

Stern, R.J., Basu, N., Kohut, E., Hein, J., and Embley, R.W., 2004.  Petrology and geochemistry of igneous rocks collected in association with ROV investigations of three hydrothermal sites in the Mariana arc:  NW Rota-1, E Diamonte, and NW Eifuku. Abstracts, December AGU, San Francisco, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, on CD.

van de Flierdt, T., Frank, M., Lee, D.-C., Halliday, A.N., Reynolds, B.C., and Hein, J.R., 2004.  New constraints on sources and budgets of Nd and Hf in Pacific seawater.  American Geophysical Union, Ocean Sciences Meeting, January 2004, Portland, OR.

van de Flierdt, T., Frank, M., Halliday, A.N., Hattendorf, B., Günter, D., Kubik, P.W., and Hein, J.R., 2004.  Tracing the history of submarine hydrothermal inputs using Pb isotopes from ferromanganese crusts.  Goldschmidt Conference, 5-11 June 2004, Copenhagen, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 68, p. A261.

Yeh, H.-W., Chan, L.-H., and Hein, J.R., 2004.  The meaning of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ages of authigenic seamount phosphorite. Abstracts, December AGU, San Francisco, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, on CD.