BASICS OF OCEANIC MINERALOGENESIS

The article is devoted to topical issues of solid minerals of the World Ocean, which are of interest for more than 45—50 years and are actively studied by a lot of countries. To date, two main types of ores have been identified: ferromanganese and hydrothermal sulfide. Both are closely spatially and genetically connected with the history of formation of the World Ocean, the post-Middle Jurassic Thalasogeny system. Ferromanganese (Fe—Mn) ore formation is considered to be a concomitant, genetically related element of the ocean evolution. Certain sedimentary-chemogenic (thalasochemical) processes are developed here, where ferromanganese nodules and cobalt-manganese crusts are formed. Hydrothermal sulfide-forming ore formation is spatially related to the energy-active structures of the ocean: mid-ocean ridges and transition zones from ocean to continents. Its connection with heat flow and seismic active, deep-lying (from 10 to 30 km) centers testifies to deep (mantle) laying of initial sources of hydrothermal process, long latent maturing and manifestation at late stages of ocean structures development in the last 200—250 thousand years. Comparison of the resource potential of the ocean and continents shows that for a relatively short period of geological time in 170—175 million years, the volumes of Ni and Co have been formed in it by many times higher than similar indicators of these metals, accumulated for 3,5—4,0 billion years in terrestrial deposits; for Mn — equal, for Mo — comparable. The world thalasogene system — the World Ocean, as a whole, is a unique cobalt-bearing province, by an order of magnitude superior to the ground resource potential of the continents. In the real foreseeable future, in 10—15 years, their full-scale industrial development can begin, significantly changing the conjuncture and value indicators of the world market of strategically important minerals