DOME: The Impact of Microbes for Seafloor Massive Sulfide (SMS) Formation, Transformation and Dissolution in the Priority Programme “Dynamics of Ore Metals Enrichment

ACRONYM

DOME

General information

Seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits form on the modern ocean floor and are analogues to ancient volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits that represent an important contribution to the global copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) supplies. SMS deposits form at active high-temperature hydrothermal vent systems through mixing of mineral-rich, advecting hydrothermal fluids with bottom seawater. SMS deposits are mainly composed of pyrite (FeS2) and chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) and can be enriched in valuable metals such as Cu, Zn, cobalt (Co), gold (Au), and silver (Ag). Abiotic processes contribute to SMS transformation and dissolution but microbial activity considerably accelerates these reactions by catalyzing the precipitation of sulfide minerals, metal transport and mineral dissolution. Hereby the availability of oxygen is likely a key player for constraining the rate at which microbes contribute to transformation and dissolution of SMS deposits (figure 1). As yet, the kinetics of these microbially mediated processes have not been considered in model simulations on the transformation of SMS and the loss of valuable metals - after becoming hydrothermally inactive. One pressing issue is to understand the lifetime of ore deposits given that weathering processes modify the rocks’ compositions by converting primary into secondary minerals and releasing valuable metals as solutes depleting the economic value of the deposits over time. At current state the “ecosystem services” that microbes colonizing mineral deposits provide are not well understood (Orcutt et al 2020). Here we aim at a better understanding of the role that marine microbes have in the SMS transformation processes and thus durability of such deposits.

Start

August, 2023

End

July, 2026

Funding (total)

Funding (GEOMAR)

272000

Funding body / Programme

DFG / SPP 2238

Coordination

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel (GEOMAR), Germany

Contact

Mirjam Perner

Partners

Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR), Germany
Fachhochschule Kiel, Germany

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