Mineral resources are only economically attractive when they have been concentrated by nature. New theories of the evolution of the oceans are guidelines for prospecting. In the central Red Sea, tectonic and volcanic proce e favour the enrichment of metalliferous muds with copper and zinc as valuable metals, and similar muds may eventually be found on mid-oceanic ridges. The discovery of manganese nodules with a high economic content of copper, nickel and cobalt has up to now been restricted to areas of formerly or recently high productivity and to the deep central parts of the oceans. Oil and gas occur only in thick sediment series. They are mostly connected with continental margins or marginal basins as the oceans’ central areas are too young and too distant from land, and therefore have not received a large enough deposit of terrigenous material.
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