TY - JOUR
T1 - Discovery of extremely REY-rich mud in the western North Pacific Ocean
AU - Iijima, Koichi
AU - Yasukawa, Kazutaka
AU - Fujinaga, Koichiro
AU - Nakamura, Kentaro
AU - Machida, Shiki
AU - Takaya, Yutaro
AU - Ohta, Junichiro
AU - Haraguchi, Satoru
AU - Nishio, Yoshiro
AU - Usui, Yoichi
AU - Nozaki, Tatsuo
AU - Yamazaki, Toshitsugu
AU - Ichiyama, Yuji
AU - Ijiri, Akira
AU - Inagaki, Fumio
AU - Machiyama, Hideaki
AU - Suzuki, Katsuhiko
AU - Kato, Yasuhiro
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by JSPS through Grants-in-Aid Scientific Research (S) No. 22226015 and No. 15H05771 to Y.K. and (B) No. 25289334 to K.N. We thank Y. Itabashi and C. Kabashima for their assistance with sample preparations and chemical analysis. We greatly appreciate Y. Watanabe and P. Emsbo for their constructive reviews that have considerably improved the manuscript. We are obliged to J. Ishibashi for his careful handling of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 by The Geochemical Society of Japan.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - We have discovered deep-sea mud that is extremely enriched in rare-earth elements and yttrium (together called REY) in the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone around Minamitorishima Island, in the western North Pacific Ocean. The maximum total REY concentration reaches approximately 7000 ppm, which is much higher than that reported for conventional REY deposits on land and other known potential REY resources in the ocean. The extremely REY-rich mud is characterized by abundant phillipsite and biogenic calcium phosphate. In addition, the stratigraphic layer with the highest REY concentration occurs just -3 m beneath the seafloor. The shallow burial of these strata together with the high REY content, especially those of heavy rare-earth elements, suggest that the newly discovered extremely REY-rich mud may be a promising REY resource.
AB - We have discovered deep-sea mud that is extremely enriched in rare-earth elements and yttrium (together called REY) in the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone around Minamitorishima Island, in the western North Pacific Ocean. The maximum total REY concentration reaches approximately 7000 ppm, which is much higher than that reported for conventional REY deposits on land and other known potential REY resources in the ocean. The extremely REY-rich mud is characterized by abundant phillipsite and biogenic calcium phosphate. In addition, the stratigraphic layer with the highest REY concentration occurs just -3 m beneath the seafloor. The shallow burial of these strata together with the high REY content, especially those of heavy rare-earth elements, suggest that the newly discovered extremely REY-rich mud may be a promising REY resource.
KW - Deep-sea mineral resources
KW - Extremely rey-rich mud
KW - Minamitorishima island
KW - Rare-earth elements
KW - Western north pacific ocean
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U2 - 10.2343/geochemj.2.0431
DO - 10.2343/geochemj.2.0431
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85007402129
SN - 0016-7002
VL - 50
SP - 557
EP - 573
JO - Geochemical Journal
JF - Geochemical Journal
IS - 6
ER -