INFO: lecture in German: "Die Kobalt-Kongo-Asteroid-These"
on worldcobaltday 27. 9. 2021 at 9 a.m. 27
Residence Wartenfels, Vordereggstrasse 30, 5303 Thalgau, Austria
pre-registration until 15. 9. 2021 to: kobalt@geologe-winkler.at

The Thesis

My paper is not simply, it is an affront to the prevailing doctrine. Research means collecting and classifying knowledge. Those who follow others are never ahead (Leonardo da Vinci). It is not a fact, it is a thesis with the content: "The Congo Impact as the beginning of the Glacial Periods." A thesis follow the law of logic: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Priority goal of my thesis is the science of the beginning of glacial periods 2.588 million year ago and the beginning to more investigate by experts of different specializations. The cause of the beginning of the glacial periods is important also for the end in our time (Holocene, Anthropocene). My paper is as exciting as a detective story, and I look forward many great detectives for a synthesis as a cause for the beginning of the Glacial Periods.

According to INQUA (2006), IUGS (2009) and ICS (2009) the glacial period starts at the beginning of the Quarternary 2.588 million years ago at the frontier of Pliocene/Pleistocene (at the beginning of Gelasium, named after Gela on Sicily). At that time a pole reversal of the earth's magnetic field takes place (Gauss-Matuyama-Boundery: magnetic Polarity-Chronozone C2n Olduvai). The West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Greenland were without any ice (Maureen Raymo). The sea level is approximately 15 metres higher. The average temperature of the earth suddenly declines about 15 degrees K. The arctic pole cup, Greenland and the West Antarctic begins to freeze over. In the sea there immediately die out calcareous Nannoplankton index fossils (Discoaster pentaradiatus, Discoaster surculus and Discoaster brouweri at the basement of the zone NC13) and there was a widespread dead in the marine megafauna (whales, sharks, turtles). Dec11, 2018: phys.org/news/2018-12-supernovae-large-ocean-animals-dawn.html : "Researchers consider whether supernovae failled off large ocean animals at dawn of Pleistocene": "It was a supernova some 150 light years away from Earth ... touching off climate and triggering mass extinction of large ocean animals ...". There is no continuous transition of the Pliocene/Pleistocene sediments. After 250 million years for the first time glacial periods starts again. Up until now a concrete cause of the activation of the glacial periods was not stated. The cause of the glacial periods shall be here demonstrated with a thesis on the basis of existing evidence and facts.

2.588 million years ago the earth catches in the polar orbit a >30 km large Fe-Cu-Ni-Co-asteroid (similar like the moon or a satellite). Under a height of 35,800 km, it closes in with each orbital flight of the poles of the earth´s surface. The asteroid hits rectangularly and above all horizontally the equator like a beat on the edge of a spinner, the „skit mark“ is 2000 km long from Katanga to Bangui, the tectonic marginal rifts left and right to the equatorial „grazing shot“ with their rivers of terraces (ditches) are spread over 900 km. As an impact diameter is approximately thirty times larger than the asteroid, this asteroid was >30 km large.

The kinetic energy (energy of impact) is above all transformed to friction energy, heat and tectonic pressure on the earth's crust and it blows the overheated dust up to the stratosphere. This sandy metalliferous ember cloud moves from Congo and the Bangui-Magnet-Anomaly to the east along to the equator (+/-20° of latitude) similar to an united intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) over East Africa, Indian Ocean, South India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia (gold and opal on the surfaces?). From the Sting Jet cloud, dust falls over the Pacific, it forms first a cobalt crust, as far as Hawaii and after then manganese nodules with parts of cobalt, in the direction of Middle America (manganese nodules belt in the Indian and Pacific Ocean). The manganese nodules only exist on the surface of the deepsea floor, they are geologically unique, in other geological stratigraphies unknown and for lack of layer by Pacific basin sediments geologically young. The metallic powder itself covers the whole earth (new geological index formation made from magnetic Fe-Ni-Co-Os-Re-particles), like the iridium-platinum-osmium-anomaly on the Cretaceous-Tertiary-boundary (66 million years ago) by a comet impact at Yucatan.

The impact event simultaneously leads to large continental earthquakes. In the east of the Congo Basin the Rift Valley arises with volcanoes situated at the rim such as for example the eight volcanoes of the Virunga-Chain and the Ngorogoro, as well at the same time the Krakatau arises just like other volcanoes. The ocean linkage between Pacific and Atlantic in the area of Panama and Costa Rica is disrupted (G. Baroli, M. Sarntheim 2005: "Final closure of Panama and the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation") by the arising Central American volcanoes with the Pasadena folding.

The warm ocean-current is interrupted from the Pacific into the Atlantic and to the Arctic and it generates the smaller Gulf Stream in the direction to Europe (30 million l/sec warm water of thermohaline circulation, northern Europe is getting cooler). Also Africa moves upward to Europe (Gibraltar closed?, Mediterranean Sea dried up?, origin of the Adriatic?), a tectonic subsidence of the Pantanal occurs with a different habitat. The axis of the earth (the inclination of 23,3° to the ecliptic) tumbles since the impact about +/-1,2° (obliquity) and the solar orbit of the earth changes. The days per year are getting fewer, it would be detectable by the daily growth strips of shells, corals or sponges per year.

On the basis of the oscillating axis of the earth with the cyclical alterned insolation on the polar caps after 250 million years for the first time again glacial periods set in. The thermal course of the eight(?) glacial periods is so far explained by calculations of cycles of insolation by Milutin Milankovic (1924).

Bangui-Magnet-Anomaly

The Bangui-Magnet-Anomaly (BMA) is the strongest magnet anomaly of the earth and it is located in the Central African Republic. It reaches 250 km from north-west to south-east and approxmately 100 km from north-east to south-west, it has four magnetmaxima, each has a diameter of about 50 km, it reaches in the depth in the west 38 km and in the east 54 km. A further anomaly point is located at the border of Cameroon. According to current literature this point is caused by an iron rich mafic deposit. But a magnetic anomaly in this depth is geologically not explicable owing to lacking tectonic, mafic seperation and palingenesis. Bordering on the south-east it is located as a counterpart a comparably huge, massive magnet anomaly, but as a contrary magnet-weakness-anomaly.

The Congo Basin

The Congo Basin located on 300 metres sea level is a unstratified „sand mine“ till a depth of 4 km (pore volume = mass deficiency = minor gravitation field), at which the rocky basement first starts in a depth of 4 km, unique for a craton and until now without any explaination. This oval basin is also upcurved at the drain to the Atlantic on 284 m (Kinshasa). The Congo is the single great river worldwide which has to overflow a terrace, the river still has not eroded downwards and it has no delta, therefore it is geologically very young. Furthermore, it developed by a turbidity current a 1500 km long and 30 km wide abyssal channel in the continental shelf. Moreover, it is most uncommon, that the River Congo without any tectonic cause (no subduction zone) is partial more than 150 metres deep (tensile rift) without being eroded or replenished by the annual floods, therefore it has to be geologically young, completely different to the Amazonas, that flows a long way to the west and after the Andine orogeny rock formation to the east direction. Well drillings in the Congo Basin down to a depth of 100 metres delivered only redcolored sediments and red ground water, whereas tropically caused laterite soils (tropical weathering with rest of iron) only reach some metres in the depth. A reddening of sediments usually refers to high temperatur of creation.

It is morphologically noticeable that in the flat Congo Basin the many parallel running rivers from Angola and Katanga firstly flow convex to the north and than switched to north-west just as in a parallel rift system. The rivers drift from the straight middle of the asteroid track through the Congo to the north-west in the direction of Bangui, in a form of an arch about 300 km to the north-west (Coriolis force).
With a circumference of the earth of 40,000 km makes this event time of the asteroids"slide" 15 minutes for a length of 2000 km (asteroid vo = 28,490 km/h after Schuler-Period, makes for an orbit 89 minutes; 1700 km in 6 minutes, 300 km in 9 minutes by a braking deceleration a= -100 m/s²). The system of the overlong, parallel rivers running crosswise through the mountains and level lands of the South Congo Basin is most likely explicable with a type of long stretched rift valley tectonic of the grazing impact.

Cobalt and Ore Occurrence

In Catanga and Bangui there are pure metallic cobalt deposits, which otherwise do not exist on the earth. Cobalt is strongly ferromagnetic and can only come from a metallic asteroid in his metallic form, this also explains the enormous Bangui-Magnet-Anomaly. 2/3 of the continental world's deposit of cobalt that lies in the south of the Congo Basin, partially radio-active of high levels of uranium in the ore (Mutanda mine, the world's biggest cobalt mine), that the levels of radioactive metal exceed export limits. Rhenium-osmium is a dating system to examine the rich cobalt deposits in the DRC (Nicolas Saintilan, ETH Zürich, 2018). Other typical extraterrestrial ore deposits are rich and surficially heaped in clastic loose sediments and sandstones.
"The DRC has some of the largest deposits of non-ferrous metals in the world" (USGS).
In Bangui at the end of the slideway five clasts of the asteroid sunk down 30 km deep into the earth's crust up to the earth's mantle, as they were very heavy (cobalt 8.9 g/cm³, iron 8 g/cm³, cobalt ores 6 g/cm³, and magnetite and pyrite 5 g/cm³). In principle that represents the reverse effect of a salt diapir. An example of an iron-nickel-metal-asteroid is the 3 km large asteroid 1986 DA with 10,000 tons gold and 100,000 tons platinum and the 50 tons heavy Hoba-Meteorite (Fe 82%, Ni 16%, Co 1%) in Namibia without a crater and the Cape York Meteorites (20 tons Agpalik: Fe 90%, Ni 9%) from the surface of Greenland. Also the earth´s core consists of NiFe.
The other ore occurrences in Catanga are rich and in destroyed (sand)sediments near by the surface. Cobalt (ore content under 10%) occurs of nickel in form of sand until fist-sized bricks (mining in open burrows in cohesive debris: ZDFinfo 5th March, 2020). The formation and the distribution of these ores has to determine of an impact metamorphosis. So far it was assumed a hydrothermal or a synsedimentary genesis. A definite proof of the impact is coesit (high-pressure quartz), may be also iron-60 isotope, Pb/U-Determination, stishovit, impact glass (moldavit) and dust of diamonds. An expedition to the Congo could deliver verifications. Lighter sediments from the cloud cover erverything by graded bedding, so that cobalt lies more than 10 metres under the surface. In the extended trajectory in Mali, a nugget field from the fragment of the asteroid was deposited (melt separation), it made King Mansa Musa the richest man of all time in the 14th century, just as the white-channel-gold in Klondyke.
At the same time a stray area of tektites (moldavite) is also verified in South-East Asia and Australia, an impact without a crater (Alexander Tollmann). The impact of Tenoumer (Mauritania 1.9 km diameter of the crater), the Richat-structure ("Eye of Africa", a circular feature of concentric siliceous breccia with a diameter of 40 km in Mauretania) and four craters more may be a part of the extended flat trajectory of the Congo Impact, similary the large Hiawatha-crater (900 metres under the ice, 180 km north-west is a smaller crater under the ice) may be formed by a 1 km large, wrecked part of the asteroid in NW-Greenland.
Nicolas St.Fleur: www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/science/greenland-ice-crater.html: "Hiawatha-crater was nearly 1,000 feet deep and 20 miles in diameter", a large river containing (metres thick) sediments from the bottom of the ice sheet." ... pieces of highly shocked quartz, which signaled that a violent impact had occured at some time in the area's history. The area's sediments also had high concentration of nickel, cobalt, chromium, gold and platinum, an indicator that the meteorite was made of iron.";
Kurt Kjaer (Denmark) in Science Advances: "... circular structure was a crater left by an asteroid."
In extension of the flight path over Nova Scotia, the cobalt stray field (with silver flakes, coesit) of Ontario also lies on geologically different formations.

Also Gela, situated on a plateau >41 m above the sea (locus typicus 37°08´48,8"N, 14°12´12,6"E: Postpliocene regression / Calabrian transgression = conglomeration = sediments of a tsunami) is located in the elongation of the impact track. The sediments with magnetic particles are on the top of the Gelasian-(Tsunami)breccia, in the layered Gelasian-sediments on the bottom (found myself). In the basal sediments of the Pleistocene or rather in its incised streams the vaporized magnetic cobalt is demonstrable, which powder covers the whole earth. Cobalt dust was partially extracted to magnetic poles, there is a high concentration of cobalt in Greenland and in the Antarctic Ross Sea. US-President and businessman Trump tried to buy Greenland in August 2019. Denmark protested.
NYT April 23, 2020: "The offer of $12.1 million in support revived memories of President Trump's suggestion last year that the United States could simply buy the semiautonomous island". America first: In doing so the cobalt claims changes from an EU-country to the USA?
The Antarctic cobalt content may also coming from a possible first impact of this asteroid from an earlier orbit in the Antarctica. Therefore the west basin structur (1800 x 800 km) with the Bentley Rift (- 2538 metres depression, an uplift fault with an elevation of 1000 metres in a cenozoic rift system, an anomalously high geothermal flux) might have formed. Roundly there are the young volcanoes Mount Sidley, Mount Erebus, Mount Kirkpatrik and Mount Vinson. The significant concentration of iron, mangan and cobalt in the Ross Sea is a sign of such a possible genesis (Saito, M.A. et al.: "... dissolved cobalt in the Ross Sea.", Pubmed 2010; Abigail E. Noble et al: "...trace metals ... McMurdo Sound ...", Front Chem Oct 30, 2013). The West Antarctic glaciers with the basic sediments flow into the sea at 4000 m/y, the glacier shrinkage has doubled in 6 years (2018).
Also in Central Europe on the basis of Pleistocene you can find magnetic particles with cobalt (0.1 mm black slices under the microscope) like the iridium-platinum-anomaly on the Cretaceous-Tertiary-boundary (66 million years ago) by an asteroid impact at Yucatan.

The worldwide deposit of cobalt is spread 20% on the continent (thereof 2/3 in the south of Congo) and 80% on the sea floor ("manganese nodules belt", 0,2% cobalt in the manganese nodule).

Guinea-Congo-Plant Kingdom

After the heat of the impact had totaly eliminated the whole existence, the Guinea-Congo Basin has developed a particular plant kingdom. First extensive peat deposit occurs. In East Africa the forest is disappearing and being replaced by a savannah. The new fauna of the devasted Congo Basin originates under unrivalled environmental situation. The evolution induces smaller (forest elephant) and more peaceful (bonobos: border is the River Congo) animals. Is there a smaller genetic variance? Graecopithecus freybergi is the first upright primate to migrate from South-East-Europa to the savannah in East-Africa east of the rift valley (Madelaine Böhme, Uni Tübingen, 2020).
The human Homo habilis in Africa uses the first tool about 2.4 mio years ago and evolves to Homo sapiens in East Africa. Otherwise the earth would be a planet of apes today, that was a close call.

Astronomy

2.8 million years ago, a supernova exploded 150 light-years away and trillions of fragments were hurled away.
april4, 2016: cds.cern.ch/record/2143998: B. Fry, B.D. Fields, J.R. Ellis: "Radioactive Iron Rain: Transporting ⁶⁰Fe in Supernova Dust to the Ocean Floor": "... This is consistent with a Supernova occurring within the Tuc-Hor stellar group (sc. southern sky) ~2.8 Myr ago ..."
Dec11, 2018: phys.org/news/2018-12-supernovae-large-ocean-animals-dawn.html: "It was a supernova some 150 light years away from earth ... touching off climate and triggering mass extinctions of large ocean animals, including a shark species that was the size of a school bus".
A three-second short gamma-ray-bursts (GRB) from the Supernova burns all life on half the globe, only animals underground can survive (for example mice). Storms blow on the bare earth as loess sediments in the uppermost Pliocene (last 200,000 years).

2.588 million years ago, a fragment hits the earth after a flght time of 210,000 years. References:
- The trajectory of the asteroid coming from the south rectangular to the ecliptic,
- the trans-ferrous metal deposits (Co (2/3 worldwide), Cu, Zn, Sn, coltan (80% worldwide, Nb, Ta), Re, Os, Pt, Au, Pb, Th, U: are made from a Supernova),
- Adrian Melott: (Uni Kansas 2018) "said recent papers revealing seabed deposits of iron-60 isotopes provided the "slam-dunk" evidence of the timing and distance of supernovae ... a supernova 2.6 million years ago may be related to a marine megafaunal extinction at the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary ... the extinction was concentrated in coastal waters ..."
- and the interstellar radioactive Iron-60-Isotope on seabed for a evidence for a nearby supernova explosion (N. Benitez 2002)
- can speak for an interstellar origin, such as the interstellar comet 1I/Óumuamua (1I/2017U1, size 400 metres x 40 metres, redmetallic) of October 19, 2017,
- "Radioactive iron-60 isotopes that have been found in ancient seabed deposits further back this finding, as here are no natural sources for this radioactive isotope on Earth, but they can be produced in Supernovae" (A. Melott 2018),
- ⁶⁰Fe Anomaly in a Deep-Sea Manganese crust and implications for a Nearby Supernova Source (K. Knie, G. Korschinek, et.al, Phys.Rev.Lett. 93, 171103; 22Oct 2004): "A nearby supernova explosion in the past can be confirmed by the detection of radioisotopes ... We have now measured a well resolved time profile of the ⁶⁰Fe concentration in a deep-sea ferromanganese crust and found a highly significant increase 2.8 Myr ago. ... The well defined time ... makes it possible ... with other events in Earth´s history."
Conclusion: The cobalt congo asteroid will fly from Nova to Earth in 210,000 years.
- ⁶⁰Fe --> 2.6 Myr (half live) --> ⁶⁰Co --> 5.3 yr --> ⁶⁰Ni (stabil).

The frequency of an impact shows the one kilometre large meteorite of Nördlingen 15 millions year ago. Also the Tunguska Impact (1909) and the 10 metres large Siberian comet (Tscheljabinsk 2013) are a sign of the frequency. It is possible that a 100 metres asteroid (or a "burned out" comet) may appear every 1000 years. They come frequently from the direction of the sun, it comes during the day, the recognition and time of forewarning of an 100 m large meteorite (which produces a 3 km large crater) amounts about 24 hours. 1I/Óumuamua has been found after his flyby on the earth only after five days, an impact crater would have been 2 km large.
- Many deposits have theire ore from impacts (Platinum-Nickel-Chromium Deposits 2017: S.K. Haldar: "The supergiant Sudbury nickel deposit in Canada was formed by a large meteorite impact crater", Kiruna in Sweden, Wolfe-Creek-Crater in Australia: 50,000 tons NiFe).

Mining and industry

The economic importance of this paper is on the one hand a new sight of ore genesis and on the other hand the worldwide deposit of cobalt. Cobalt is a ferromagnetic metal with the atomic number 27 in the group 9 "worldcobaltday 9/27" as the 3/14 for the pi-day of mathematicians. The cobalt-dioxide-gel is needed for a cathode, which is contained to 3% in lithium-ions-batteries. In 2019 the cobalt mine production amounts to 124,000 tons (2018: 135,000 tons), cobalt is a by-product of copper and nickel mining.
3/4 are for alloys, superalloys, electrical equipment, colours and catalysts. The remaining 31,000 tons of cobalt (2019) will be installed in 400 kg heavy e-car-batteries, this results in 2.6 million e-cars worldwide. 2019, the production of e-cars is 2.3 million, cars 67 million. There is no a deposit or a norm or a recycling of cobalt, cobalt is toxic and is disposed of a special waste.
The e-car-batteries are made in China (President Xi Jinping ), 3% in Europe. The funding amounts to EUR 5000. The batteries are also charged with electricity from coal-fired power plant. June 7, 2019: german economics minister Altmaier in China (he wants to build a factory for 7 million batteries in Germany): no cobalt for Germany. Merkels twelfth travel to China / Wuhan (Tagesschau.de: Sep 7, 2019: Climate protection is responsability for all; sueddeutsche: Sep 5, 2019: Merkel´s travel in the future): No cobalt for Germany. Have China cobalt for the EU? Are thereby the factories for batteries possible in Münster / Germany (July 11, 2019) and Nersac / France ( Macron January 31, 2020)? Financial Times Juni 16, 2020: "Tesla plans to use Glencore cobalt in new Gigafactories in Berlin and Shanghai (6,000 tons/a, $ 30,000/tons Co)". Gigafactory4 in Berlin: July 2, 2020: Tesla canceled the production of accumulators; December 10, 2020: focus / Der Tagesspiegel: court of justice (OVG 11 S 127/20): Stop of the Deforestation of 0,828 km² pine forest on the Tesla construction site. December 19, 2020: Der Tagesspiegel: authority (Landesamt für Umwelt) stopped the work on the construction site on account of missing security performance (EUR 100 Mio). Krone, January 8, 2021: Musk is the richest person of the world thanks to the rise in the share prices (Tesla 2020: +700%). January 26, 2021: Musk wants a factory for batteries without cobalt. The lithium-ionen-cobaltdioxid-batterie NCA (wikipedia) is the best practice.
Science News 2018 (Prof. Robert Creaser, Uni Alberta, Canada), Earths cobalt deposits: "Cobalt enables rechargeable batteries to stock energy without overheating. It is a strategic metal for the technological revolution, critical in efforts to face and remediate climate change."
Octobre 17, 2020 focus: Fraunhofer battery expert Kai-Christian Möller says: "The lithium-ion battery will certainly be around for the next ten to 15 years."
Nature Reviews Materials, March 2018, HIU & KIT, Karlsruhe: Dr. C. Vaalma, Dr. D. Buchholz: "...various applications of batteries shows that the shortage and price increase of cobalt are likely to occur, since the cobalt demand by batteries might be twice as high as the day's identified reserves."
www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/107058/uk-electric-cars-will-require-twice-the-world-s-supply-of-cobalt : 5 Jun 2019:
"A team of scientists has written to the Committee of Climate Change (established under the Climate Change Act 2008) warning that if the UK´s 31.5 million cars are replaced by electric vehicles by 2050, as is currently planned by the Government, this will require almost twice the current annual global supply of cobalt. The researchers have also calculated that based on the latest ´811´battery technology (80 per cent nickel, 10 per cent cobalt, 10 per cent manganese), UK demand for EV batteries will require almost the total amount of neodymium produced globally each year, three quarter´s of the world´s lithium, and "at least" 7,200 tonnes of neodymium and dysprosium, as well as 2,362,500 tonnes of copper."
January 28, 2021 ntv: Tesla -4%: "Tesla is now really breaking in?" February 2, 2021 cnn: Tesla recalls 135,000 cars. ZDF, ntv March11, 2021: german economics minister Altmaier wants to build a factory for 7 million batteries in Germany (how June7, 2019). June 2021: Tesla recalls 300,000 cars in China.
Why is Japan getting out of e-cars and gasoline engines and is already selling second-generation hydrogen-powered cars (Toyota Mirai)? In Switzerland there is the hydrogen technology company www.h2energy.ch and the transport company Weiss drives 40 Hyundai-trucks with hydrogen technology, h2 stations at river power stations.
ZEIT april28, 2021: german federal minister SCHEUER "wants to promote the use of hydrogen in cars": 1.6 Billion € subsidies.

The Cobalt Calculation

car production 2019	67 millions (e-car production 2.3 millions with delay)
cobalt mining 2019	124,000 tons (only terrestrial, not expandable)
cobalt in e-batteries	3% by mobil, laptop, e-bike, battery equipment, ...
e-car battery	400 kg
3%-cobalt in an e-car battery	12 kg
1/4 cobalt for e-cars	124,000 / 4 = 31,000 tons cobalt (3/4 in battery equipment, colours, (super)alloys, catalysts)
e-cars possible	31,000,000 kg / 12 kg = only 2.6 mio e-cars worldwide

The e-car cannot replace an internal combustion engine, only hydrogen technology can do that.

Why Lithium-Cobalt-batterie NCA are unmatched? High energy density, Long life spans, Low weight, Thermal stability, High specific power, Low self-discharge rate, Recyclability. www.visualcapitalist.com/lithium-cobalt-batteries-powering-the-electric-vehicle-revolution/ Second-grade batteries: NMC, LMO, LTO, LFP.

Necessary note on the climate change:
www.scitechdaily.com/critical-slowing-down--suggests-that-the-western-greenland-ice-sheet-is-close-to-a-tipping-point/#google_vignette (or PNAS): May17, 2021, Niklas Boers & Martin Rypdal: "We might be seeing the beginning of a large-scale destabilization. From the analysis, they conclude that this part of the Greenland ice sheet is losing stability, consistent with the idea that it is very close to tipping into a state of accelerated melting, regardless of whether the arctic warming trend is halted in the coming decades. If the Greenland ice sheet as a whole transits into accelerated melting there will be severe consequences for the entire planet. The Greenland ice sheet contains the mass equivalent to raising global sea level by 7 meters."

Necessary note on the cobalt deposits:
Now, the Pacific manganese nodules belt is released as a one million km² claim (three times of he area of Germany) for the mining potato-sized porous manganese nodules (DeepGreen NORI project 2018: 13 wet kg/m², cut-off of 4 kg/m²: Mn 29%, Fe 6%, Ni 1%, Cu 1%, Co 0,2%, and Polymetallic; http://deep.green/43-101-technical-report-for-the-nori-clarion-clipperton-zone-project-pacific-ocean/). The manganese nodules are located in the top half metre of the seabed also in the 800 km wide, across the Pacific, 7000 km long Clarion-Clipperton-Zone from Papua to northern Mexiko. This "ore zone" is bounded to the north by the Clarion Fracture Zone and to the south by the Clipperton Fracture Zone. The mineralization is supposed to come from these two fracture zones. However, the NORI project Area 1A, 1B and 1C are more than 200 km away from these fractures and have a low mineral variation, which practically excludes such mineral genesis, as well as the manganese nodules deposits in other seabeds. For example, for 10 million e-cars per year it is necessary to mine 160,000 to manganese nodules with 330 to cobalt in 4000 m depth over 40 km² each day. If the deep sea clay settles an estimated 1 mm per 5000 years and the manganese nodules lie in the upper half metre, they can be 2,588,000 years old. The minning with a rotovator was allowed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, ISA International Seabed Authority) to twenty countries (not to companies). The currents spread the muddy treatment water with toxic ore waste and red deep sea clay (1 µm) and cloud the Pacific. The Pacific is the largest living space in the world.

A puzzle be composed of a lot of answers and
cobalt is the key,
Pb/U the watch and
⁶⁰Fe the missing link.

Plan:

lecture on worldcobaltday 9/27/2021 in the residence "Wartenfels", Austria
a "2.588 Symposium" in one year
an expedition to the Congo in two years

fee for publishing (reprinting): €cent 2.588 / newspaper copy;
mail for a worddoc copy and a pre-print (pdf) to: kobalt@geologe-winkler.at

***back to the beginning***