A Special Issue Devoted to 50th Anniversary Symposium: Mineral Resources, Earth's Environments and Life

摘要

This collection of papers arises from the 50th Anniversary Symposium on Mineral Resources, Earth's Environments and Life that was held on 14 June 2001 during the Society of Resource Geology Annual Meeting in Tokyo, Japan. The symposium focused on many aspects of genetic links among ore deposits, Earth's environments and life. This variety of topics is reflected in this collection of papers.Ore deposits were often formed as products of environmental changes at the Earth's surface through the geologic history. The presence or absence of ore deposits can be an excellent indicator to the surface environments. Because geochemical reactions are sometimes enhanced by the activity of biomass near the Earth's surface, the biological activities have a close link to the formation of ore deposits through direct and/or indirect processes. Deciphering complicatedly connected links among mineral resources, environments and life is needed by all means for better understanding ore forming processes through the history of the Earth. The present collection provides some types of studies and approaches that are currently being taken to do so. Among six contributions in this special issue, three papers deal with the Archean Earth. Other papers discuss the Phanerozoic and modern Earth systems.