Linkages between the Genesis and Resource Potential of Ferromanganese Deposits in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans

In addition to iron and manganese, deep sea ferromanganese deposits, including nodules and crusts, contain significant amounts of economically interesting metals, such as cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), and rare Earth elements and yttrium (REY). Some of these metals are essential in the development of emerging and new-generation green technologies. However, the resource potential of these deposits is variable, and likely related to environmental conditions that prevail as they form. To better assess the environmental controls on the resource potential of ferromanganese deposits, we have undertaken a detailed study of the chemical composition of ferromanganese nodules and one crust sample from different oceanic regions. Textural and chemical characteristics of nodules from the North Atlantic and a crust from the South Pacific suggest that they acquire metals from a hydrogenous source. These deposits are potentially an economically important source of Co and the REY. On the other hand, nodules from the Pacific Ocean represent a marginal resource of these metals, due to their relatively fast growth rate caused by diagenetic precipitation. By contrast, they have relatively high concentrations of Ni and Cu. A nodule from the Arctic Ocean is characterised by the presence of significant quantities of detrital silicate material, which significantly reduces their metal resource

Review of offshore CO2 storage monitoring: operational and research experiences of meeting regulatory and technical requirements

Legislation for offshore storage has been developing over the last decade or so and is currently most developed in Europe. Although the large-scale operating sites in Europe were started prior to the regulations coming into force, any planned sites will need to meet these regulatory requirements. Our review of monitoring experiences from both the operating sites and research at experimental injection sites and in areas of natural CO2 seepage suggest that broadly, the technical and regulatory challenges of offshore monitoring can be met. A full report reviewing offshore monitoring including tool capabilities, practicalities and costs is available from IEAGHG (released Q1 2016)

AtlantOS Deliverable 6.2: Roadmap for emerging networks

Whilst the AtlantOS project is directed towards bringing together the existing, but currently disparate observing programmes in the Atlantic Ocean, there are still some gaps in terms of requirements for addressing the collection and curation of data around the Essential Ocean Variables. This deliverable will identify gaps and emerging observing networks. Here we use the term emerging network to classify science areas that are starting to gain importance with respect to EOV’s and their measurement and curation, or are existing small scale programmes or communities that might become more important in the future if we can find means of enhancing the collaboration among investigators/groups, increasing resources to the area or using new technological developments. In the AtlantOS project we have identified a number of areas in which there are gaps in our knowledge and where opportunities exist to enhance current small-scale networks. The scope of this document is to assess these networks, based on where we are now and where the networks could be in three and ten years’ time, respectively. An assessment of the state of the existing networks is useful to identify the level of international organisation and potential for further development in the future. We identify opportunities where synergies are possible with more established global projects, and where small levels of investment in resource and time for governance and coordination can productively and realistically develop the networks. We also identify if there are ways to develop coordinated approaches to metrology technology development. For this analysis, the networks have been allocated to one of the three groups outlined below

Roadmap for emerging networks

Assessment of networks and gap analysis that highlights opportunities for development over three and ten year timescale

Virtually disbinding codices : visualisation of the construction of codex textblocks

This paper offers an overview of the current state of development of VisColl, a project aimed at collecting information on the physical makeup of the gathering structure of books in codex format, and presenting it visually to the end user. It is a novel way of presenting manuscripts on computer screens, one that is substantially different from the customary page-turning view, and one that focuses on the physicality of the book as opposed to its state as a text-bearing object