Nautilus矿业公司在海底块状硫化物勘探中采用的取样技术与装备

海底块状硫化物(SMS)富含铜、锌、铅等金属,特别是富含贵金属金、银,引起了国际采矿业的浓厚兴趣。近年来,以澳大利亚Nautilus矿业公司为先驱的国际大型资源开发商和投资商已介入海底多金属硫化物的商业化开采。介绍了Nautilus公司在巴布亚新几内亚专属经济区针对海底块状硫化物矿床开展的一系列以商业开采为目的的勘探取样活动,详细介绍了勘探中所采用的基本方法与技术,并重点对其地质调查中所应用的拖网挖掘取样、ROV海底表面取样、大洋钻探船岩心取样和专门开发的ROV岩心钻探取样的装备、取样结果及作业效率进行了较为系统全面地介绍。     

Undisturbed Strata Succession Sampling Technology and the Engineering Geological Characteristics of an Atoll in the Southern South China Sea

Coral reef calcareous sediment, a special category of rock-soil material, has representative geological structure and environmental characteristics. It is widely distributed in shallow areas of the tropical ocean; therefore the exploration instruments and technologies for engineering geology studies of coral reef calcareous sediments are very different from those used in land or deep-sea. Obtaining undisturbed cores from the Holocene unconsolidated stratum of coral reefs has been a key problem in the field of marine geology and environment surveying. The authors have designed a novel floating drilling platform equipped with a drilling machine, and successfully achieved undisturbed cores from both reef flats (with water depth 0.5 to 2 m) and a enclosed lagoon (with water depth 2–12 m) of Yongshu Reef (9°32–9°42 N, 112°52–113°04 E), southern South China Sea. Based on the detailed observation on the cores and the analysis from engineering geology, Yongshu Reef was split into reef three engineering geological zones: leading edge, reef flat (including outer reef flat, middle reef flat and inner reef flat) and lagoon. The sediments are classified in the stratum as fine sand, medium sand, coarse sand, gravel and weak-cemented reef limestone.