Baseline establishment for metals in the western Clarion-Clipperton Zone

Resource exploitation in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) is of major research interest worldwide, but its influence on the environment is poorly understood, especially due to the lack of baseline values for metals in the surrounding sediment. This work aimed to establish the baseline values of 17 metals (Ba, Ca, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ag, As, B, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) using normalization, the cumulative frequency curve method considering a total of 172 samples taken from 8 multitube cores and 1 box sediment core collected in the western CCZ during the COMRA-45 cruise campaign from August to September 2017. The baseline values of the evaluated metals were as follows: 1 932 mg/kg for Ba, 29 512 mg/kg for Ca, 18 150 mg/kg for K, 17 120 mg/kg for Mg, 6 747 mg/kg for Mn, 28 546 mg/kg for Na, 0.571 mg/kg for Ag, 5.00 mg/kg for As, 94.4 mg/kg for B, 0.626 mg/kg for Cd, 104 mg/kg for Co, 76.1 mg/kg for Cr, 370 mg/kg for Cu, 0.028 mg/kg for Hg, 190 mg/kg for Ni, 27.5 mg/kg for Pb and 156 mg/kg for Zn. Our findings would fill the baseline value gap in the study area and further improve accuracy of environmental impact assessments on the impact of resource exploitation.