Deep-Sea Iron Deposit from the South Pacific

Along with specimens of manganese oxides and basalt, rocks containing more than 30 percent iron by weight and consisting mainly of poorly crystallized goethite have been dredged from the flanks of a seamount located on the East Pacific Rise. The Fe-Mn ratio varies widely among the various oxide rocks deposited at this locality and at another seamount in the same area. The deposit was probably formed by fractional precipitation of iron and manganese which had been introduced locally into the bottom water by hydrothermal solutions of volcanic origin, and by leaching from deep-sea basaltic lavas.