Workshop on the Establishment of a Geological Model of ...

Figure 14: Scheme of the licensed and reserved areas based on the metallogenic zonality in the Clarion‐Clipperton Zone.
In the North Zone there is an East KCON Area, the entire OMA Area and the northern parts of the IOM,
eastern French and the western OMI areas, the entire eastern and the north parts of the western Japanese area,
northern part of the Korean area, the entire western part of Russian area and northern part of the western part of
the OMCO. 1
The entire eastern part of OMI, the central part of IOM, the entire western part of KCON, and practically all
eastern parts of the Russian and the OMCO areas are located in the Central Zone. There are also the southern
parts of the French area, the western zones of the Japanese and OMI areas, a western part of the French area, and
the entire Chinese area. Only the southern parts of the Korean areas are located inside the South Zone.
We believe that such a specific layout of areas represent the differences between average values of nodule
composition in different zones. We can provide data about average concentrations of Co and Ni illustrating such
differences: the highest average values of Co are in the OMA area (0, 26), which is entirely located inside the
North Zone; the lowest values are in nodules of the IOM (0, 19) area. The highest average of Ni concentrations are
in nodules in the eastern part of the OMCO (1, 43) and the western part of the Japanese area (1, 48) is entirely
located inside the Central Zone. Hence, we think that regional seabed morphology and water depth are not the
main factors controlling nodule composition.
But if we apply the results of our investigations to each area and field, we can see that in each case every
nodule field reflects the local seabed features and morphology and is a very important factor of nodule
distribution. Our studies proved that the Clarion‐Clipperton seabed morphology is characterized by a similarity
irrespective of the areas. It is represented by a combination of long hills, abyssal valleys and inter‐valley plateaux
from the North to the South (Figure 15).
1
KCON – Kennecott Consortium; OMA – Ocean Mining Associates; OMCO – Ocean Minerals Company; OMI – Ocean
Management, Inc, and IOM – Interoceanmetal Joint Organisation
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