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ESTIMATING THE RESOURCES OF POLYMETALLIC NODULES IN THE PACIFIC ON THE BASIS OF THEIR GENETIC CHARACTERISTICS AND GEOSTATISTICAL METHODS (CLARION-CLIPPERTON ZONE, THE INTEROCEANMETAL AREA)

J. Mucha

Abstract

The paper is aimed at estimating the abundance of polymetallic nodules in the Pacific area is administered by the Interoceanmetal Joint Organization (IOM) using statistical and geostatistical methods. Polymetallic nodules occurring in the Clarion-Clipperton zone in the Eastern Pacific Ocean contain numerous metals, of which the most important are Co, Cu, Ni, and Mn. In the area administered by the IOM, the four genotypes of nodules are marked with the following symbols: D and D1 (diagenetic), H (hydrogenic), and HD (hydrogenic-diagenetic). They are characterized by different contents of the most important metals (Co, Cu, Ni, and Mn). Diagenetic nodules (type D and D1) are the most common. A comparative analysis of genotypes, based on classical statistical methods and with special emphasis on the abundance of nodules and the most important metals, has been performed. In the majority of the examined cases, statistically significant differences in the distribution of the abundance of nodules and metals between different types of genetic nodules have been observed. In addition, the heterogeneity of deposit parameters of different genotypes of nodules has been confirmed based on the Games-Howell multiple range test. The observed regularities are only of theoretical importance because they refer to full data sets covering the entire range of variability of the abundance in nodules and metals in different genotypes. Separation of subsets, whose nodule abundance (dry basis) is not less than 7 [kg/m2] and the exploitation of which may be economically viable, within the genotypes significantly changes the results of the Games-Howell test. In such a case, the test does not allow rejecting the hypothesis about the homogeneity of all abundance subsets and practically suggests the validity of global estimation of nodule abundance using statistical or geostatistical methods based on the combined data for all genotypes.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2018/1.3/s03.052

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