Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

today. Field studies by the USA, Germany, UK, and France have largely been
discontinued.
A detailed database and review of the chemical composition of crusts
based on data up to 1987 was published in 1989 (32), and is also available on
NOAA and MMS Marine Minerals CD-ROM, NGDC Data Set #0827, and web
site http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/geology/ mmdb/. A more recent
compilation of mean chemical data was presented by Hein et al. (33) and
those data are further updated here.
The list of 37 research cruises in Table 3 is not comprehensive and data
for a few cruises completed by the USSR (and later Russia) and China are not
available to the author. However, based on an estimated 40 research cruises
from 1981 through 1999, it is suggested that minimum expenditures were
about US $30 million for ship and associated scientific operations related to
field work, and $40 million for shore-based research, for a total investment of
about $70 million.
30 60 90 120 150 180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0
60
•
•
•
• J H
MI • •
• •
FSM • •
• • ••
••
•
•
K-P
• • • • • K
•
•
• CI
•
•
•••
•
•
•
•
30
0
-30
• Korea
New Zealand
• USA
USSR/Russia
Australia
France
• Germany
• Japan
-60
Figure 4. Distribution of research cruises dedicated to the study of cobalt-rich Fe-Mn crusts, 1981-1999 (listed in Table 3); CI = Cook Islands;
FSM = Federated States of Micronesia; H = Hawaii; J = Johnston Island (USA); K = Kiribati; K-P = Kingman-Palmyra Islands (USA);
MI = Marshall Islands.
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 202