Seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits are important deep-sea mineral resources expected to occur predominantly on slow- and ultraslow-spreading mid-ocean ridges. Resource estimates are already available for some of the largest SMS deposits on slow-spreading ridges but not on ultraslow-spreading ridges. Based on geological mapping and sampling, this study investigates the distribution and content of sulfide-rich deposits in the Yuhuang-1 hydrothermal field (YHF), located on the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge. The sulfide-rich deposits in the YHF are composed of two areas ~500 m apart: the southwest sulfide area (SWS) and the northeast sulfide area (NES). We calculated the volume of sulfide-rich moundsin the YHF and arrived at a total accumulation of ~10.6 × 106 tons, including at least ~7.5 × 105 tons of copper and zinc and ~18 tons of gold. Furthermore, considering the coverage of layered hydrothermal sediment mixed with sulfide-rich breccias, which may have underlying massive sulfide deposits, the maximum total mass was estimated at ~45.1 × 106 tons. This suggests that the YHF is one of the largest SMS deposits worldwide and confirm that ultraslow-spreading ridges have the greatest potential to form large-scale SMS deposits.
Publication name |
ORE GEOLOGY REVIEWS Volume: 134 Article Number: 104169 DOI: 10.1016/j.oregeorev.2021.104169 Published: JUL 2021 |
Author(s) |
Yu, Junyu; Tao, Chunhui; Liao, Shili; Dias, Agata Alveirinho; Liang, Jin; Yang, Weifang; Zhu, Chuanwei |
Corresponding author(s) |
TAO Chunhui taochunhuimail@163.com -Ocean Collage, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan 316021, Zhejiang, China -Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hangzhou 310012, China -School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200030, China |
Author(s) from IGCAS |
ZHU Chuanwei | View here for the details
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