On the 13th of July, Egidio Marino from IGME presented the communication titled “Evaluation of REY enrichment in Fe-Mn crusts from different seamounts and depths in the Canary Island Seamount Province” at Goldschmidt 2023. This work, co-authored by Francisco Javier González. Teresa Medialdea, Luis Somoza, Ana Belén Lobato, Jesús Reyes and Eva Bellido, also from IGME.

In this paper, forty-two representative samples from eight seamounts of this region have been studied in order to evaluate their REY contents related to the factors that influence them with the position and the water depth.

This study evidence that shallowest samples have the highest REY contents (up to 3800 µg/g) and that this contents slowly decrease with depth reaching contents of 2600 µg/g at 3100 m depth. On the other hand, samples at higher (4800 m) depths but faced to the south show high REY contents (up to 3500 µg/g). This behavior may reflect the presence of the oxygen minimum zone in the shallowest depth, but also the action of different bottom water masses that could have different physicochemical properties affecting their trace elements contents and redox conditions. This phenomenon could locally promote the enrichment of REY on the south flanks of seamounts.