Chemical composition of ferromanganese crusts in the world ocean: a review and comprehensive database

Open-File Report 89-20
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Abstract

A comprehensive database of chemical and mineralogical properties for ferromanganese crusts collected throughout the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and has been assembled from published and unpublished sources which provide collection and analytical information for these samples. These crusts, their chemical compositions and natural distribution, have been a topic of interest to scientific research, as well as to industrial and military applications. Unlike abyssal ferromanganese nodules, which form in areas of low disturbance and high sediment accumulation, crusts have been found to contain three to five times more cobalt than these nodules, and can be found on harder, steeper substrates which can be too steep for permanent sediment accumulation. They have also been documented on seamounts and plateaus within the U.S. exclusive economic zone in both Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and these are therefore of strategic importance to the United States Government, as well as to civilian mining and metallurgical industries. The data tables provided in this report have been digitized and previously uploaded to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Geophysical Data Center in 1991 for online distribution, and were provided in plain text format. The 2014 update to the original U.S. Geological Survey open-file report published in 1989 provides these data tables in a slightly reformatted version to make them easier to ingest into geographic information system software, converted to shapefiles, and have completed metadata written and associated with them.

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Chemical composition of ferromanganese crusts in the world ocean: a review and comprehensive database
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 89-20
DOI 10.3133/ofr8920V.1.1
Edition First posted 1989; Revised and reposted November 18, 2014, version 1.1
Year Published 1989
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Contributing office(s) Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Description xi, 475 p.
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details