The Mid-Atlantic Ridge belongs to slow-spreading ridges. Hannington predicted that there were a large number of mineral resources on slow-spreading ridges; however, seafloor massive sulfide deposits usually develop thousands of meters below the seafloor, which make them extremely difficult to explore. Therefore, it is necessary to use mineral prospectivity mapping to narrow the exploration scope and improve exploration efficiency. Recently, Fang and Shao conducted mineral prospectivity mapping of seafloor massive sulfide on the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but the mineral prospectivity mapping of magmatic-related seafloor massive sulfide on the whole Mid-Atlantic Ridge scale has not yet been carried out. In this study, 11 types of data on magmatic-related seafloor massive sulfide mineralization were collected on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, namely water depth, slope, oceanic crust thickness, large faults, small faults, ridge, bedrock age, spreading rate, Bouguer gravity, and magnetic and seismic point density. Then, the favorable information was extracted from these data to establish 11 predictive maps and to create a mineral potential model. Finally, the weights-of-evidence method was applied to conduct mineral prospectivity mapping. Weight values indicate that oceanic crust thickness, large faults, and spreading rate are the most important prospecting criteria in the study area, which correspond with important ore-controlling factors of magmatic-related seafloor massive sulfide on slow-spreading ridges. This illustrates that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a typical slow-spreading ridge, and the mineral potential model presented in this study can also be used on other typical slow-spreading ridges. Seven zones with high posterior probabilities but without known hydrothermal fields were delineated as prospecting targets. The results are helpful for narrowing the exploration scope on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and can guide the investigation of seafloor massive sulfide resources efficiently.

中文翻译：

---

基于GIS的证据权重法在大西洋中脊岩浆相关海底块状硫化物的远景制图

大西洋中脊属于缓展脊。汉宁顿（Hannington）预测，慢速蔓延的山脊上有大量的矿产资源。然而，海底块状硫化物矿床通常会在海底以下数千米处发育，这使其极难勘探。因此，有必要利用矿物远景图来缩小勘探范围，提高勘探效率。最近，Fang和Shao在北大西洋中脊进行了海底块状硫化物的矿物前瞻性测绘，但尚未完成整个大西洋中脊尺度上与岩浆有关的海底块状硫化物的矿物前瞻性测绘。在这项研究中，在大西洋中脊收集了11种类型的岩浆相关海底块状硫化物矿化数据，即水深，坡度，洋壳厚度，大断层，小断层，山脊，基岩时代，扩散速度，布格重力以及磁点和地震点密度。然后，从这些数据中提取有利信息，以建立11个预测图并创建一个矿产潜力模型。最后，采用证据权重法进行矿物远景测绘。权重值表明，洋壳厚度，大断层和扩展速率是该研究区最重要的勘探标准，与慢速扩散脊上与岩浆有关的海底块状硫化物的重要控矿因素相对应。这说明大西洋中脊是一个典型的缓展脊，本研究中提出的矿产潜力模型也可以用于其他典型的缓慢扩展的山脊上。七个具有较高后验概率但没有已知热液场的区域被划定为勘探目标。研究结果有助于缩小大西洋中脊的勘探范围，可以有效指导海底块状硫化物资源的勘探。