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Electrical properties of seafloor massive sulfides

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Abstract

Seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits are increasingly seen as important marine metal resources for the future. A growing number of industrialized nations are involved in the surveying and sampling of such deposits by drilling. Drill ships are expensive and their availability can be limited; seabed drill rigs are a cost-effective alternative and more suitable for obtaining cores for resource evaluation. In order to achieve the objectives of resource evaluations, details are required of the geological, mineralogical, and physical properties of the polymetallic deposits and their host rocks. Electrical properties of the deposits and their ore minerals are distinct from their unmineralized host rocks. Therefore, the use of electrical methods to detect SMS while drilling and recovering drill cores could decrease the costs and accelerate offshore operations by limiting the amount of drilling in unmineralized material. This paper presents new data regarding the electrical properties of SMS cores that can be used in that assessment. Frequency-dependent complex electrical resistivity in the frequency range between 0.002 and 100 Hz was examined in order to potentially discriminate between different types of fresh rocks, alteration and mineralization. Forty mini-cores of SMS and unmineralized host rocks were tested in the laboratory, originating from different tectonic settings such as the intermediate-spreading ridges of the Galapagos and Axial Seamount, and the Pacmanus back-arc basin. The results indicate that there is a clear potential to distinguish between mineralized and non-mineralized samples, with some evidence that even different types of mineralization can be discriminated. This could be achieved using resistivity magnitude alone with appropriate rig-mounted electrical sensors. Exploiting the frequency-dependent behavior of resistivity might amplify the differences and further improve the rock characterization.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Future Oceans research and technology transfer program MaTeP of The Future Ocean Cluster (GEOMAR and CAU Kiel) and BAUER Maschinen GmbH for the financial support for this project and for the permission granted to publish these results. The article benefitted from constructive assessments by Dr. N. Klitzsch and two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Maritime Technologies, BAUER Maschinen GmbH, BAUER-Str. 1, 86529, Schrobenhausen, Germany

    Giovanni Spagnoli

  2. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Wischhofstrasse 1-3, 24148, Kiel, Germany

    Mark Hannington, Marion Jegen, Sven Petersen & Tea Laurila

  3. Institute for Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics, TU Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstrasse 3, 38106, Braunschweig, Germany

    Katharina Bairlein & Andreas Hördt

Authors
  1. Giovanni Spagnoli
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  2. Mark Hannington
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  3. Katharina Bairlein
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  4. Andreas Hördt
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  5. Marion Jegen
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  6. Sven Petersen
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  7. Tea Laurila
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Correspondence to Giovanni Spagnoli.

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Spagnoli, G., Hannington, M., Bairlein, K. et al. Electrical properties of seafloor massive sulfides. Geo-Mar Lett 36, 235–245 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-016-0439-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-016-0439-5

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