James Hein

The near exponential growth in Earth’s population and the global economy puts increasing constraints on our planet’s finite supply of natural metal resources, and, consequently, there is an increasing need for new sources to supply high-tech industries. To date, effectively all of our raw-metal resources are produced at land-based sites. Except for nearshore placer deposits, the marine

A sequence of submerged terraces (L1–L12) offshore Lanai was previously interpreted as reefal, and correlated with a similar series of reef terraces offshore Hawaii island, whose ages are known to be

Davidson Seamount is located about 80 km off the central California coast in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. It is one of the better-explored seamounts in the world, having been sampled and observed during 32 dives by the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Tiburon. These dives mapped the bottom substrate and biological communities, and collected over 280 rock samples and nearly...

Mineralogy and chemical composition are presented for a chert-ironstone bed that overlies the ??rk??t Mn deposit. This bed is mottled green-brown in its lower and upper parts, which are composed of quartz, goethite and celadonite. These parts of the bed are interpreted to be strongly altered tuffs, reflecting oxidic, low-temperature alteration of a hydrated, Fe-rich, Al-poor tuff, and K...

Regulations are being developed through the International Seabed Authority (ISBA) for the exploration and mining of cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. This paper lays out geologic and geomorphologic criteria that can be used to determine the size and number of exploration and mine-site blocks that will be the focus of much discussion within the ISBA Council deliberations. The surface...

A series of well-developed submerged coral reefs are preserved in the Huon Gulf (Papua New Guinea) and around Hawaii. Despite different tectonics settings, both regions have experienced rapid subsidence (2-6??m/ka) over the last 500??ka. Rapid subsidence, combined with eustatic sea-level changes, is responsible for repeated drowning and backstepping of coral reefs over this period...