Ignq is located in the southwest part of the country and has a view to the southwest towards Tunulliarfik and the snowy peaks of Ilmaussaq. Credit: University of St.
A new study from the University of St Andrews shows how volcanic processes can form deposits of rare earth metals.
The research, led by a team from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at St Andrews, provides new clues about how hot volcanic fluids concentrate rare earth metals.
These rare metals, which include elements such as niobium and tantalum, are essential for the production of alloys, batteries, magnets and superconductors, and are vital for modern technologies such as mobile phones and laptops. The transition to a low-carbon economy must involve finding new sources of the rare earth metals.
There are rare earth deposits associated with extinct volcanoes. These volcanoes are only exposed in a few places around the world.
The team of researchers wanted to understand why some volcanoes have massive metals deposits while others don't. The researchers were able to show that the fluids leaking from the volcano can carry a lot of rare earth metals. These fluids scatter metals over a large area and decrease their chances of being economically viable.
The southern bank of Tunulliarfik is at the Narsaarsuk beach. Credit: University of St.
Krzysztof Sok from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences said that the study showed that metals had been carried out of the chamber. This is the first time that the mass of material transported was estimated. A new way to visualize the distribution of metals is presented.
During volcanic activity, the melt at shallow levels of the Earth's crust can form a separate hot fluid enriched in critical metals, which then leaks from the magma chamber into the surrounding rocks carrying a globally significant volume of the metals.
The research team estimates that the total amount of critical metals transported to the surrounding rocks is about 40 megatonnes, which is comparable to the mass of rare earth metals present in some of the world's largest metal deposits.
The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at St. Andrew's has shown that fluids can leak from magma systems that would otherwise have formed large critical metal deposits within the chamber confines. We can now predict how the deposits under these types of volcanoes formed because we understand this process more fully. We can guide better exploration for the next generation of green technologies with this information.
More information: Krzysztof Sok and his team, quantifying metasomatic high-field-strength and rare-earth element transport from alkaline magmas. There is a book titled "10130/G49471.1."
The journal has information about geology.
There are new tools to uncover rare metals.
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