SOUTHAMPTON’S National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has been awarded 1.8 million euros to study sulphide deposits on the Atlantic Ocean floor, three kilometres down.

The research is part of a wider international programme to assess seafloor mineral resources which has received ten million euros from the European Commission.

A new frontier for seafloor mineral resources is opening up due to dramatic growth in demand for metals essential for modern societies.

To exploit these resources requires major advances in technology as well as a breakthrough in understanding how and where they form.

The 1.8 million euro grant is to enable geologist Dr Bramley Murton from NOC’s Marine Geoscience Group to lead an international partnership studying the evolution, preservation and sub-surface expression of huge sulphide deposits on and under the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

Dr Murton said: “These sulphide deposits are formed by high-temperature hydrothermal fluid flow on top of volcanoes forming the mid-ocean ridge crest, thousands of metres beneath the surface of the sea.

“Our challenge is to develop methods to locate such deposits on the seafloor and to identify how they have evolved since their formation.”