Geology Today最新文献

Conflict minerals: developing responsible sourcing through the minerals supply chain 冲突矿产：通过矿产供应链发展负责任的采购

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-09-16 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70033

Laurance Donnelly, Caroline Quirke, Duncan Pirrie

{"title":"Conflict minerals: developing responsible sourcing through the minerals supply chain","authors":"Laurance Donnelly, Caroline Quirke, Duncan Pirrie","doi":"10.1111/gto.70033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gto.70033","url":null,"abstract":"Conflict minerals are often known as the ‘3TG’, referring to tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold. The term refers to the conditions under which these metals are mined, usually under the control of armed gangs that use violence and intimidation to harm those working at the mines. The minerals are mined under serious human rights violations and the profits support and finance conflict. Geologically, these metals occur naturally as ore deposits of cassiterite (tin), columbite–tantalite (also known as ‘coltan’, the ore of tantalum) and wolframite (tungsten). Extensive deposits exist in Central Africa, in particular in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and surrounding countries. There are laws and guidelines surrounding conflict minerals and a legal and moral obligation to ensure that organizations are ensuring the supply chain does not support conflict minerals, for example, by conducting due diligence to verify the source of potential conflict minerals. Mineralogical and geochemical profiling has the potential to assist in verifying the provenance and traceability of conflict minerals, although this requires further development.","PeriodicalId":100581,"journal":{"name":"Geology Today","volume":"42 5","pages":"247-254"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148974877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Fossils as cultural heritage: Scientific, commercial and legislative issues 化石作为文化遗产：科学、商业和立法问题

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-09-16 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70035

Federico Fanti, Rosa Maria Di Maggio, Laurance Donnelly, Robert Fitzpatrick, Fábio Augusto da Silva Salvador, Duncan Pirrie

{"title":"Fossils as cultural heritage: Scientific, commercial and legislative issues","authors":"Federico Fanti, Rosa Maria Di Maggio, Laurance Donnelly, Robert Fitzpatrick, Fábio Augusto da Silva Salvador, Duncan Pirrie","doi":"10.1111/gto.70035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gto.70035","url":null,"abstract":"Fossils are among the principal sources for understanding the history of life through ‘Deep Time’ and can inform projections of biotic responses to environmental change. Despite a widespread recognition of the scientific, historical and communication significance of fossils in our culture, their role as part of our cultural heritage is still far from being internationally recognized. Moreover, their role in the global economy has grown, as increasing demand for items has prompted an international and profitable market, which has both a legal and illegal side. Several countries, because of their palaeontological resources, are key targets for fossil hunters and multi-million dollar fossil trading. Other countries are working to have earlier historical collections returned. Globally, regulations vary greatly and even a shared, unequivocally accepted definition of a fossil and its cultural significance is still lacking, creating systemic challenges that merit coordinated, multi-stakeholder responses. Pending effective and internationally shared approaches, uncertainty can create conditions that enable illicit activity. Interdisciplinary approaches and improved stakeholder cooperation may encourage professionals dealing with fossils in private and public institutions to share knowledge with lawyers, traders, law enforcement agencies, government bodies, ethics experts and the media.","PeriodicalId":100581,"journal":{"name":"Geology Today","volume":"42 5","pages":"263-272"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gto.70035","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148974879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Geodigest Geodigest

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-09-16 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70030

引用次数: 0

The global scale of gold, precious mineral and metal crime 全球规模的黄金、贵重矿物和金属犯罪

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-09-16 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70031

Laurance Donnelly, Robert Schouwstra, Fabio Salvador, Carlos Molina, Duncan Pirrie

{"title":"The global scale of gold, precious mineral and metal crime","authors":"Laurance Donnelly, Robert Schouwstra, Fabio Salvador, Carlos Molina, Duncan Pirrie","doi":"10.1111/gto.70031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gto.70031","url":null,"abstract":"The illegal trafficking, theft and trade in precious metals is a widespread global problem. Illicit precious metals may become legitimized and enter the supply chain usually at a different geographical location to their origin. The beneficiaries are often well-organized syndicates, criminal gangs, cartels or terrorist organizations. These crimes involve precious metals such as gold and platinum group metals (PGM), and take place at all stages in the supply chain including exploration, mining, processing, transportation, storage, smelting, refining and commodities trading. Minerals and precious metals can have inherent variability in terms of their physical, chemical (e.g. isotope ratios), morphological (surface), textural and mineralogical characteristics. This variability can be attributed to a number of factors including, for example, their geological origin, post mining mineral processing, beneficiation or the blending of different ore or processing streams. Methods are now available (or being developed) to enable provenance determination and to identify the geographical location or geological origin from where a mineral or metal sample was derived or refined. These can also be used to verify whether or not a mineral originated from an illegal or conflict source or from a mine or processing plant aligned with criminal activities. These methods aid traceability, facilitating the systematic recording and tracking of precious minerals and metals as they move through the supply chain from the mine to the refiner and finally to the market.","PeriodicalId":100581,"journal":{"name":"Geology Today","volume":"42 5","pages":"224-234"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148974876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Illegal sand mining 非法采砂

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-09-16 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70034

Duncan Pirrie, Laurance Donnelly, Ping Yin

引用次数: 0

Organized crime in the minerals, mining and metals industries: underworld versus upperworld 矿产、采矿和金属行业的有组织犯罪：黑社会与上层社会

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-09-16 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70036

Mark Harrison, Laurance Donnelly, Fabio Salvador

{"title":"Organized crime in the minerals, mining and metals industries: underworld versus upperworld","authors":"Mark Harrison, Laurance Donnelly, Fabio Salvador","doi":"10.1111/gto.70036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gto.70036","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, organized crime groups (OCGs), including cartels, transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), transnational serious and organized crime (TSOC), syndicated and terrorist organizations, have become structurally embedded within the minerals, mining and metals industries, exploiting rising global demand for gold and critical raw materials associated with the energy transition, digitalization and geopolitical tension. These beneficiaries operate in the underworld, do not obey the law and make huge profits from illegal mining and the international trade in illicit mineral commodities. Illegal international trade routes, served by corrupt officials, have long since been established, as narcotics are simply switched for minerals and metal commodities. In some cases, these profits now exceed and have replaced conventional drug trafficking. These activities are facilitated by weak governance, regulatory asymmetries, opaque refining hubs and sophisticated trade-based money laundering schemes that bridge the ‘underworld’ and the ‘upperworld’. Law enforcement responses have consequently evolved away from prosecution-led models towards intelligence-led strategies focused on detection, disruption, deterrence and displacement, targeting supply chain vulnerabilities rather than individual offenders. Despite some tactical successes, illegal mining operations rapidly re-emerge, reflecting the resilience and adaptability of organized crime networks. Without coordinated international action addressing supply chain governance, financial transparency and geoforensic support, organized crime involvement in the minerals sector is likely to further intensify into the foreseeable future.","PeriodicalId":100581,"journal":{"name":"Geology Today","volume":"42 5","pages":"215-223"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148974904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Critical minerals, the energy transition and associated crimes 关键矿物，能源转型和相关犯罪

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-09-16 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70032

Laurance Donnelly, Duncan Pirrie, Quentin Dehaine

{"title":"Critical minerals, the energy transition and associated crimes","authors":"Laurance Donnelly, Duncan Pirrie, Quentin Dehaine","doi":"10.1111/gto.70032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gto.70032","url":null,"abstract":"Critical minerals are of vital importance for many sectors of modern life, including technology, energy, food production, medicine, health, transportation, construction, water supply, space, cyberspace, information technology, military systems and national security. The future supply of these minerals is essential, and is of particular importance to facilitate the energy transition, vehicle electrification, information communications and digital technologies. These critical minerals are also required if we are to attain global net zero targets and to try to limit increases in global temperature as determined at the 2015 Paris conference and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). However, some critical minerals are associated with crime, including human rights violations, security risks and environmental degradation. Corruption, crime and violence linked with the exploration, mining, processing and trading of critical minerals tend to be centred on, but not limited to, countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Here, organised crime groups, cartels and armed gangs are empowered to facilitate the illegal mining of critical minerals, and their onward supply into legal global supply chains. As the energy transition continues to increase the demand for critical minerals, the circular economy and in particular the supply of black mass (the product from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries), could in part supplement the possible short-fall in critical battery mineral supplies from conventional geological mineral resources. There is a clear requirement for a multinational, multi-agency solution to mitigate the risks associated with crimes in the critical minerals sector, which could for example include regulations, standardisations, traceability and provenance determination systems and greater transparency of financial investments.","PeriodicalId":100581,"journal":{"name":"Geology Today","volume":"42 5","pages":"235-246"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148974902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Hotspot magmatism and volcanic hazard at Cape Verde through the lens of shipborne surveying and dredging 通过船载测量和疏浚镜头观察佛得角的热点岩浆活动和火山危险

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-07-30 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70028

Brian Oller, Hunter R. Edwards, Yash Srivastava, Abigail K. Barker, Alex Kovalick, Giovanni Lima, Cornelia Nilsson, Marine Paquet, Easton Satin-Shaw, Isaias Teixeira, M. Jeff Buxton, Noah DesRosiers, Mason Schettig, James M.D. Day

{"title":"Hotspot magmatism and volcanic hazard at Cape Verde through the lens of shipborne surveying and dredging","authors":"Brian Oller, Hunter R. Edwards, Yash Srivastava, Abigail K. Barker, Alex Kovalick, Giovanni Lima, Cornelia Nilsson, Marine Paquet, Easton Satin-Shaw, Isaias Teixeira, M. Jeff Buxton, Noah DesRosiers, Mason Schettig, James M.D. Day","doi":"10.1111/gto.70028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/gto.70028","url":null,"abstract":"The Cape Verde archipelago is a long-lived volcanic ocean island chain formed by a mantle plume in the Atlantic Ocean. The archipelago is characterized by ten subaerial islands with complex age relationships, abundant submarine volcanism and variable volcanic hazards. Numerous studies of the subaerial volcanism have shown extensive diversity in rock types, although comparatively few have focused on submarine volcanism and its relationship to plume evolution. Here, we share preliminary results and new observations from R/V Roger Revelle cruise RR2510, which conducted high-resolution multibeam bathymetry, sub-bottom profile surveys and targeted dredging of submarine seamounts. Dredging enabled sampling of young volcanic cones formed atop debris fans and bathymetry confirmed the absence of substantial volcanic edifices within the ring of islands. This suggests that melt generation is confined to the islands and not within the Cape Verde swell. Preliminary results from RR2510 demonstrate the critical role of shipboard research in understanding ocean island systems, integrating monogenic volcanism with broader volcanic hazards and advancing early career-led marine geosciences and international collaborations.","PeriodicalId":100581,"journal":{"name":"Geology Today","volume":"42 4","pages":"174-182"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gto.70028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148617056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

French 1:50 000 geological map series nears completion 法国1:50 000地质图系列即将完成

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-07-30 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70025

David A. G. Nowell

引用次数: 0

Retro review: Harrison of Ightham 回顾：《Ightham的哈里森》

Geology Today Pub Date : 2026-07-30 DOI: 10.1111/gto.70026

S. Kenneth Donovan

引用次数: 0