The Significance of Nanomineral Particles during the Growth Process of Polymetallic Nodules in the Western Pacific Ocean

Qiangtai Huang, Bo He, Zhourong Cai () and Qianru Huang
Additional contact information
Qiangtai Huang: School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
Bo He: School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
Zhourong Cai: School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
Qianru Huang: School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-14

Abstract: As a huge reservoir of economic metallic elements, oceanic polymetallic nodules have important strategic significance and are one of the main research objects in marine geology, especially their formation process and genetic mechanism. In this study, polymetallic nodules from the cobalt-rich crust exploration contract area in the Western Pacific Ocean were taken as the research object. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used for observation and testing. The results indicate that many nanomineral particles, mainly composed of Fe and Mn, developed in polymetallic nodules from the western Pacific Ocean. The solid–liquid interface process of nanomineral particles plays an important role in the growth and evolution of nodules. We propose that the growth process of polymetallic nodules in the western Pacific Ocean can be divided into three stages. First, terrigenous detritus nucleates, and nanomineral particles composed of Fe, Mn, and other elements form, aggregate and attach to the core to form the initial shell. Second, a dense layer of the shell forms under stable conditions. In the third stage, the redox conditions of the nodules change, and the polymetallic nodules experience a variety of interface process modifications.

Keywords: polymetallic nodules; nanomineral particles; growth process; Western Pacific Ocean (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/13972/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/13972/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:21:p:13972-:d:954844

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().