Manganese ore potential related to hydrosulfuric pollution of bottom waters (with the Black Sea as an example)

Abstract

Conditions and scales of the accumulation of dissolved manganese in waters of marine basins with hydrosulfuric contamination are considered. It is shown that the Kalamit ferromanganese nodule field, most probably, originated due to the delivery of manganese from the hydrosulfuric zone of the Black Sea. Precisely this source converts the normal diagenetic process of material redistribution into the ore process. It is demonstrated that the formation of ferromanganese nodules in the Black Sea represents an embryonic manganese ore process. Its full-scale development seems to have taken place in the Early Oligocene Maikop basin owing to the spatiotemporal coincidence of a series of favorable conditions.