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

Utilizing these statistics, Mr. de Souza said that it had been observed that, in some cases, for
neighbouring blocks, the values of abundance varied considerably from one block to the next. He said that
the same analysis was performed for the different metals, noting that metal distribution generally exhibited
changes after several hundred kilometres. He emphasized that, unless blocks had different geological
characteristics, they were supposed to be more or less similar. He noted, however, that differences were
found in the metal content in adjoining blocks, which suggested that the problem was not related to the
geological characteristics of the blocks, but rather, appeared to be related to a problem in using different
methods for analysing the metals in the nodules.
To illustrate the point, Mr. de Souza provided participants with an example, using the manganese
content of blocks in the eastern region of the Clarion‐Clipperton Zone. He defined the eastern region as
composed of five blocks containing data from three pioneer investors (Figure 19).
Figure 19: Eastern region of the Clarion‐Clipperton Fracture Zone
Mr. de Souza pointed out that, through histograms of each block, the distribution of nodules and other
parameters related to them varied from block to block. With nickel content data for the blocks, he pointed to
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