Cobalt-rich Ferromanganese Crusts from the Southwest Canary IslandsSeamounts : Mineralogy and Geochemistry of Strategic and Critical Elements

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Departamento de Mineralogía y Petrología, leída el 27-07-2020Esta tesis doctoral titulada “Costras de Ferromanganeso ricas en cobalto de los Montes Submarinos al Suroeste de las Islas Canarias: Mineralogía y Geoquímica de Elementos Estratégicos y Críticos” presenta por primera vez el estudio mineralógico y geoquímico exhaustivo y a diferentes escalas de muestras de costras de Fe-Mn recogidas en los montes submarinos de las Islas Canarias. La provincia de los montes submarinos de las Islas Canarias cuenta con más de cien montes y colinas submarinas, repartidos tanto en el área alrededor de las islas como hacia el noreste y el suroeste. De todos ellos, destacan por su edad, superficie y presencia de mineralizaciones los que se encuentran al suroeste de las Islas. Entre ellos se encuentran las evidencias más antiguas del hot-spot canario, que datan del Cretácico Inferior (Las Hijas)...This PhD Thesis entitled “Cobalt-rich Ferromanganese Crusts from the Southwest Canary Islands Seamounts: Mineralogy and Geochemistry of Strategic and Critical Elements” shows for the first time the exahustive mineralogical and geochemical study at different scales of Fe-Mn crust samples collected on the seamounts of the Canary Islands. The Canary Islands seamount province counts with hundreds of seamounts and submarine hills located both in the area around the islands as well as in the north-east and in the south-west. The seamounts located in the south-west stand out for their age, surface area and presence of mineralizations. Between them it is possible to find the oldest evidence of the Canary hot-spot dated lower Cretaceous (Las Hijas Sm.)...Fac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEunpu

Integrated thematic geological mapping of the Atlantic Margin of Iberia.

This paper synthesizes the geology of the Atlantic Margin off the coast of Iberia and surrounding Abyssal Plains using published thematic mapping freely downloadable from EMODNET-Geology portal at different scales. Selected information was chosen in order to highlight mineral occurrences and natural hazards overlaid on geological and morphological maps. Altogether, this information is published and interpreted here for the first time; nevertheless this exercise can be carried out by anyone interested and allows different visualizations of geological objects. Cross-correlations of geological objects and processes can easily arise. Because all of the information (each piece of data and metadata) in the EMODNET-Geology portal has bibliographic references associated, readers are able to find the original source of information. It is shown that clicking in and out of layers of information (that cannot be found all together in a single scientific paper) allows quick cross-correlation using the EMODNET Geology thematic portal. This allows a free, versatile and quick way of cross-correlating geological objects and processes in vast marine areas and their comparison with onshore geolog

Hydrogenetic, Diagenetic and Hydrothermal Processes Forming Ferromanganese Crusts in the Canary Island Seamounts and Their Influence in the Metal Recovery Rate with Hydrometallurgical Methods

Four pure hydrogenetic, mixed hydrogenetic-diagenetic and hydrogenetic-hydrothermal Fe-Mn Crusts from the Canary Islands Seamount Province have been studied by Micro X-Ray Diffraction, Raman and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy together with high resolution Electron Probe Micro Analyzer and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry in order to find the correlation of mineralogy and geochemistry with the three genetic processes and their influence in the metal recovery rate using an hydrometallurgical method. The main mineralogy and geochemistry affect the contents of the different critical metals, diagenetic influenced crusts show high Ni and Cu (up to 6 and 2 wt. %, respectively) (and less Co and REY) enriched in very bright laminae. Hydrogenetic crusts on the contrary show High Co and REY (up to 1 and 0.5 wt. %) with also high contents of Ni, Mo and V (average 2500, 600 and 1300 μg/g). Finally, the hydrothermal microlayers from crust 107-11H show their enrichment in Fe (up to 50 wt. %) and depletion in almost all the critical elements. One hydrometallurgical method has been used in Canary Islands Seamount Province crusts in order to quantify the recovery rate of valuable elements in all the studied crusts except the 107-11H, whose hydrothermal critical metals’ poor lamina were too thin to separate from the whole crust. Digestion treatment with hydrochloric acid and ethanol show a high recovery rate for Mn (between 75% and 81%) with respect to Fe (49% to 58%). The total recovery rate on valuable elements (Co, Ni, Cu, V, Mo and rare earth elements plus yttrium (REY)) for the studied crusts range between 67 and 92% with the best results for Co, Ni and V (up to 80%). The genetic process and the associated mineralogy seem to influence the recovery rate. Mixed diagenetic/hydrogenetic crust show the lower recovery rate for Mn (75%) and Ni (52.5%) both enriched in diagenetic minerals (respectively up to 40 wt. % and up to 6 wt. %). On the other hand, the presence of high contents of undigested Fe minerals (i.e., Mn-feroxyhyte) in hydrogenetic crusts give back low recovery rate for Co (63%) and Mo (42%). Finally, REY as by-product elements, are enriched in the hydrometallurgical solution with a recovery rate of 70–90% for all the studied crusts

Ferromanganese Crust and Phosphorites Pan-European Predictivity Cartography: MINDeSEA project results

[EN] MINDeSEA is a project framed in GeoERA whose general objective is to obtain a metallogenetic study of the main types of mineral resources existing in the bottom of the European seas: hydrothermal sulphides, ferromanganese crusts, phosphorites, marine placers and polymetallic nodules. One of the specific objectives of the project is to develop databases and harmonized cartography of the mineral deposits of the seabed, the latter providing predictivity maps, among others.This research is a contribution to the project MINDeSEA (grant agreement no 731166), and has been partially funded by the Spain’s Recovery and Resilience Plan included in the MINECRITICAL project “Strategic critical metals for the energy transition” (C17.I7).Peer reviewe

The Interactive Role of Hydrocarbon Seeps, Hydrothermal Vents and Intermediate Antarctic/MediterraneanWater Masses on the Distribution of Some Vulnerable Deep-Sea Habitats in Mid Latitude NE Atlantic Ocean

In this work, we integrate five case studies harboring vulnerable deep-sea benthic habitats in different geological settings from mid latitude NE Atlantic Ocean (24–42º N). Data and images of specific deep-sea habitats were acquired with Remoted Operated Vehicle (ROV) sensors (temperature, salinity, potential density, O2, CO2, and CH4). Besides documenting some key vulnerable deep-sea habitats, this study shows that the distribution of some deep-sea coral aggregations (including scleractinians, gorgonians, and antipatharians), deep-sea sponge aggregations and other deep-sea habitats are influenced by water masses’ properties. Our data support that the distribution of scleractinian reefs and aggregations of other deep-sea corals, from subtropical to north Atlantic could be dependent of the latitudinal extents of the Antarctic IntermediateWaters (AAIW) and the Mediterranean Out- flow Waters (MOW). Otherwise, the distribution of some vulnerable deep-sea habitats is influenced, at the local scale, by active hydrocarbon seeps (Gulf of Cádiz) and hydrothermal vents (El Hierro, Canary Island). The co-occurrence of deep-sea corals and chemosynthesis-based communities has been identified in methane seeps of the Gulf of Cádiz. Extensive beds of living deep-sea mussels (Bathymodiolus mauritanicus) and other chemosymbiotic bivalves occur closely to deep-sea coral aggregations (e.g., gorgonians, black corals) that colonize methane-derived authigenic carbonates

Quantitative MRI Harmonization to Maximize Clinical Impact: The RIN-Neuroimaging Network

Neuroimaging studies often lack reproducibility, one of the cardinal features of the scientific method. Multisite collaboration initiatives increase sample size and limit methodological flexibility, therefore providing the foundation for increased statistical power and generalizable results. However, multisite collaborative initiatives are inherently limited by hardware, software, and pulse and sequence design heterogeneities of both clinical and preclinical MRI scanners and the lack of benchmark for acquisition protocols, data analysis, and data sharing. We present the overarching vision that yielded to the constitution of RIN-Neuroimaging Network, a national consortium dedicated to identifying disease and subject-specific in-vivo neuroimaging biomarkers of diverse neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. This ambitious goal needs efforts toward increasing the diagnostic and prognostic power of advanced MRI data. To this aim, 23 Italian Scientific Institutes of Hospitalization and Care (IRCCS), with technological and clinical specialization in the neurological and neuroimaging field, have gathered together. Each IRCCS is equipped with high- or ultra-high field MRI scanners (i.e., ≥3T) for clinical or preclinical research or has established expertise in MRI data analysis and infrastructure. The actions of this Network were defined across several work packages (WP). A clinical work package (WP1) defined the guidelines for a minimum standard clinical qualitative MRI assessment for the main neurological diseases. Two neuroimaging technical work packages (WP2 and WP3, for clinical and preclinical scanners) established Standard Operative Procedures for quality controls on phantoms as well as advanced harmonized quantitative MRI protocols for studying the brain of healthy human participants and wild type mice. Under FAIR principles, a web-based e-infrastructure to store and share data across sites was also implemented (WP4). Finally, the RIN translated all these efforts into a large-scale multimodal data collection in patients and animal models with dementia (i.e., case study). The RIN-Neuroimaging Network can maximize the impact of public investments in research and clinical practice acquiring data across institutes and pathologies with high-quality and highly-consistent acquisition protocols, optimizing the analysis pipeline and data sharing procedures

GeoERA Raw Materials Monograph : the past and the future

ABSTRACT: GeoERA Minerals projects have produced data aimed at supporting Europe’s minerals sector and to assist the European Commission to realise its goals for raw materials. Data has been compiled on mineral occurrences and mineral provinces across Europe, in particular, areas with potential to host Critical Raw Materials. Anecdotal evidence from the minerals sector provides an indication of the likelihood of exploration leading to mine development. For every 1,000 mineral showings examined, only 100 may receive further exploration work and of those 100, only 10 may warrant more detailed sampling either through trenching, drilling or other means and of those 10 only 1 may proceed to an evaluation through a full feasibility study which itself has only 50% chance of being positive. Following this, any project for which a mine proposal is made must undergo a full evaluation and permitting by authorities including full public consultation. The proposal may or may not pass this scrutiny. In terms of a schedule, the generally accepted minimum time frame from discovery to production is 10 years and usually much more, up to 20 years.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative dementias with the explainable MRI based machine learning algorithm MUQUBIA

Biomarker-based differential diagnosis of the most common forms of dementia is becoming increasingly important. Machine learning (ML) may be able to address this challenge. The aim of this study was to develop and interpret a ML algorithm capable of differentiating Alzheimer's dementia, frontotemporal dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and cognitively normal control subjects based on sociodemographic, clinical, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) variables. 506 subjects from 5 databases were included. MRI images were processed with FreeSurfer, LPA, and TRACULA to obtain brain volumes and thicknesses, white matter lesions and diffusion metrics. MRI metrics were used in conjunction with clinical and demographic data to perform differential diagnosis based on a Support Vector Machine model called MUQUBIA (Multimodal Quantification of Brain whIte matter biomArkers). Age, gender, Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) Dementia Staging Instrument, and 19 imaging features formed the best set of discriminative features. The predictive model performed with an overall Area Under the Curve of 98%, high overall precision (88%), recall (88%), and F1 scores (88%) in the test group, and good Label Ranking Average Precision score (0.95) in a subset of neuropathologically assessed patients. The results of MUQUBIA were explained by the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) method. The MUQUBIA algorithm successfully classified various dementias with good performance using cost-effective clinical and MRI information, and with independent validation, has the potential to assist physicians in their clinical diagnosis

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio