FSUE VNIIOkeangeologia named after I. S. Gramberg:

S. A. Kozlov, Scientific Secretary, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, e-mail: kozlov@vniio.ru

For the reconnaissance and strategic planning of the Pacific Ocean`s mineral raw development of material resources, it is necessary to develop the fundamental approaches to its engineering-geological division into districts. Such a division is based on the results of Russian (Soviet) engineering-geological researchings of development conditions of ferromanganese formations in the Pacific Ocean, the study of physic-mechanical properties of ferromanganese nodules and cobalt-manganese crusts, bottom sediments and rocks. Also there are taken into account the multi-year researchings, carried out in the region by specialists of the developed foreign countries.Ferromanganese ores are systematized (in engineering-geological purposes), based on the classification scheme by I. V. Popov, with separate categories: ore formation (the geochemical type) - geological-genetic complex (the genotype) - lithologic-genetic complex (on the texture of the ore shell) - morphological type - engineering-geological type (on the size) - the engineering-geological variety (on the strength). Deposits for ferromanganese nodules are presented by silts and clays, which variability of physical and mechanical properties is controlled by belonging to a particular area with a specific uniform character of precipitation formation. That presupposes a very small variation of the conditions of production within the borders of the ore deposits. In the case of the cobalt-manganese crusts, even within a single ore deposit, the properties of rock-substrates can leap: from the fragile basalts with bubble texture, hyaloclastites and sandstones, to the massive basalts, limestones and tuff breccias. The compiled map of the engineering-geological dividing into districts of the Pacific Ocean, shows two megaregions, which are selected according to the type of the deep-seated structure of the earth's crust, which outlined the different tectonic structure of the basalt lodge (the border between the young and the transitional slabs). Engineering-geological regions are isolated by the structural-tectonic principle as the geological and structural units of the earth's crust, peculiar in engineering-geological sense, the large part of the regions, relatively homogeneous by the nature of the relief and the genetic peculiarities of the surface sediments.Engineering-geological areas of the spreading fields of the ferromanganese nodules may be confined to the zones, characterized by a specific structure of the bottom soil and related to it tendencies of physical and mechanical properties` changes. The spreading fields, the ferromanganese crusts may be confined to the groups of elevations, with the same substrate. According to the results of large-scale engineering-geological division into districts, the areas of the deposit with different complexity of the conditions of their development are identified.

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