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1 Department of Geology, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, UK
2 Eötvös Loránd University, Department of Palaeontology, Budapest, Kun Bela ter 2, H–1083, Hungary
3 Eötvös Loráind University, Department of Mineralogy, Budapest, Múizeum krt 4A, H–1088, Hungary
4 Geochemical Laboratory, Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest, Budaörsi út 45, H–1112 Hungary
Fossil manganese nodules and encrustations from ‘seamount’ and ‘basin’ localities in the Transdanubian Central Mountains of Hungary are lithologically, mineralogically and chemically similar to some modern marine ferromanganese oxide deposits, and show no evidence of postdepositional changes other than cementation. Five groups of deposits were encountered: Fe/Mn nodules, encrusted shells, pavements, stains, and Fe oxide encrusted intraclasts, the first three of which are specific to the 'seamount' environment and the last to the ‘basins’.
Optical and electron microprobe investigation of the samples shows them to exhibit many similarities with modern ferromanganese oxide deposits, and that many of the nodules are surrounded by a halo of dispersed ferromanganese oxides, strongly suggesting that they continued to accrete metals through the pore waters of unlithified sediments for a period after burial. By contrast, pavements which appear to have grown on hardgrounds at the sea floor show little or no evidence of derivation of metals from underlying sediments.
Geochemical investigations on the deposits show the ‘seamount’ varieties to be closer in composition to most modern nodules and crusts than the ‘basin’ varieties, and that the latter are essentially manganese and trace-element-poor ferruginous deposits. Nevertheless, all can be more or less compositionally equated with modern ferromanganese oxide deposits forming in marginal Atlantic environments, which would be in accord with the proposed depositional environment of the Transdanubian Central Mountains based on other evidence
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