Studying ancient ocean floors could help discover minerals needed to produce electric cars and solar panels.
Studying ancient ocean floors could help discover minerals needed to produce electric cars and solar panels.
Researchers at The University of Queensland led a collaborative study that examined the remnants of ocean floors in eastern Australia and central Asia and applied a method to date the age of calcite trapped inside.
Dr Renjie Zhou from UQ’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences said the findings could make it easier to source critical minerals used in renewable and clean technologies.
“Calcite and other hydrothermal minerals are often observed in critical mineral deposits and form under mineralising fluid activities,” Dr Zhou said.
“Our work shows that we can trace the history of fluids in the Earth’s crust and see when and what mineral resources they might generate.”
Read more at: University of Queensland
