Fossilized fish could indicate rich deposits of valuable rare-earth metals
Thursday, June 18, 2020 - 10:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Rare metals crucial to green industries turn out to have a surprising origin. Ancient global climate change and certain kinds of undersea geology drove fish populations to specific locations. As remains of the fish fossilized, they accumulated valuable elements and these fossil beds became concentrated deposits of such metals. This discovery could aid future prospects for deposits of so-called rare-earth elements in other undersea locations.