[Titanscape (OP)]

Do you think there is or have you heard of there being undersea mineral resources of equal or better yeild of valuable materials than what's found inland?

I know there are mountains, valleys, trenches and low yeild mineral resources there but I have not heard of diamonds or Titanium... only nickel...

Titanscape

[gsmollin]

The seafloor is relatively young, mostly basalt. It gets subducted under the continents and created at spreading centers, on about a 200 million year cycle. So I don't think a lot of mineral deposits that require a long time to form will be found there, like diamonds. There are certainly some minerals there, and of course petroleum deposits, but many of the continental minerals will probably be found only on the continents.

[neilep]

considering that two thirds of this planet is undersea though may equal things out ?...perhaps ?...maybe ?......were you thinking of doing some prospecting Bren ?

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'  

[Titanscape (OP)]

Yes I am looking to win a business grant concerning various ways of making money out of the sea floor.

Titanscape

[Exodus]

quote:Originally posted by gsmollin

The seafloor is relatively young, mostly basalt. It gets subducted under the continents and created at spreading centers, on about a 200 million year cycle. So I don't think a lot of mineral deposits that require a long time to form will be found there, like diamonds. There are certainly some minerals there, and of course petroleum deposits, but many of the continental minerals will probably be found only on the continents.

The point is though, that through erosion of the continents, large amounts of minerals are washed into the oceans through rivers...

It is also important to differentiate mineral resources... diamonds are most unlikely on the basaltic sea floors as they are more commonly found in deeper deposits called Kratons. There are certain minerals to be found in large quantities in young rocks such as basalts. For example... Basalts contain large amounts of olivine which is an iron magnesium siicate... so there are metals present... huge mineral deposits are also belched out from mid ocean black smokers also. The current problem is that although there are mineral resources within our oceans, the cost of extraction is just too high. The choice of extraction depends on the cost to remove the ore compared to its grade (i.e. how much of the mineral is present in the ore e.g. 2%). With current technologies, it just isnt feasable.

[Exodus]

here is a report from 1998:

http://journalism.uts.edu.au/acij/old_acij/cafepacific%20old/resources/aspac/undersea.html