Pacific Ocean

Ferromanganese Marine Nodule

 Manganese Nodule

This nodule specimen was offered at $470

A manganese nodule specimen which was collected from the 5000 meter deep sea floor off Southeast Hawaii. 

Marine nodules accrete around pieces of shell, clay, sand, microfossils, carbonized plant material, shark's teeth etc.

 Manganese nodules similar to this one have been discovered in uncountable numbers on deep ocean floors and are ripe as a rich source of manganese for future mining operations.

     
Atlantic Ocean Caribbean

Deep Sea Manganese Nodule

 This Nodule sold for about $37.00 US in 2005

A fantastic addition to any geologists collection! 

 I was told that this item was picked up by a minesweeper around the late 1960's, it came from the sea floor 800 miles South of Bermuda in 18,000 feet of water, around the time that John Edmunds first discovered deep sea vents.
     

NEW MEXICO

U.S.A.

Manganese Nodules
or Black Smoker pieces?

 

 

Psilomelane-gem rough-manganese-1 pound.
Selling for $14.00 a pound, shipped.
July 2005

 

Is Black Smoker Material being sold as

"Rare psilomelane rough, from New Mexico, U.S.A. in gem quality pieces." ?

The seller says, "This Manganese mineral material is now rare especially in this quality and from the USA. When finished the mirror like polish and fine pattern is unmistakable. The picture represents about 1 pound, with piece size running about 1-2 inches in each 1 pound lot."
     

NORTH AMERICA

U.S.A.

Manganese Nodule,
Poly-metallic Marine Nodule
 		 High in Manganese, these poly-metallic concretions also contain Iron and Nickel, with very significant concentrations of Copper, Silver, Gold, and the Platinum complex metals. Occurring as metallic sulfide compounds in a silica matrix. Content varies from nodule to nodule. These Nodules contain both ferrous and nonferrous metals. High in Manganese, these poly-metallic concretions also contain Iron and Nickel, with very significant concentrations of Copper, Silver, Gold, and the Platinum complex metals. Occurring as metallic sulfide compounds in a silica matrix. Content varies from nodule to nodule.

This ancient Seabed is being mined in the Rocky Mountains.

NODULE MORPHOLOGY

 

Poly-metallic nodules are usually small balls, often rust colored and lightly flattened, 5 to 10 centimeters in diameter, which lay on the seabed at 4.000 to 6.000 meters deep. Their wet density is around 2 g/cm3; their water-content is 40 % of their dry-weight and their porosity is 50 %. 

 

Nodules form by accretion and so, are primarily round in shape.

More complex shapes form when a speck of sediment falls on a simple nodule and the concretion grows around it, and upon it.

In section, most nodules show concentric layers called "cortex" that correspond to the successive step of growth around a "core", often microscopic. The core can be a fragment of an old nodule, a shark tooth or a rock fragment (basalt, limestone, etc...). 

Nodule Size and Shape

 

are highly variable (roughly spherical, more or less ovoid), nodules are classified as:

 

Mononodule:

simple nodule, spherical or ellipsoidal, 

 

Polynodule:

a nodule with several cores,

 

Composite nodule:

several joined nodules. 

 
     
     
     

Manganese Nodules, are rock concretions formed on the seafloor at depths of up to 4 miles.  Compiled of Manganese, they are also rich in Cobalt, Nickel and Copper.  Some nodules, depending on location, contain considerable quantities of precious metals.

Nodule growth is one of the slowest of all geological phenomena – up to 1cm 10 *6 ma.

It is impossible to dive for these items- without some of the most sophisticated submarine technology. They can only be found in geological strata on land. Manganese nodules are the current focus of marine technology for future mining operations.