The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has been awarded €1.8 million to study massive sulphide deposits on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, three kilometres beneath the surface.
The research is part of a wider, international programme to assess seafloor mineral resources that has received €10 million funding from the European Commission.
A new frontier for seafloor mineral resources is opening up due to dramatic growth in demand for metals essential for modern societies. To exploit these resources requires major advances in technology as well as a breakthrough in understanding how and where they form.
The €1.8 million research grant is to enable geologist Dr Bramley Murton from NOC’s Marine Geoscience Group to lead an international partnership studying the evolution, preservation and sub-surface expression of massive sulphide deposits on and under the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.