Introduction It is generally understood that manganese deposits have a diverse origin, based on their mineralogy, chemical composition and tectonic setting. Marine Mn-bearing deposits are classified as hydrogenous, hydrothermal and also biogeneticbacterial deposits (Bonatti et al., 1972; Hein et al., 1997; Bau et al., 2014; Polgá ri et al., 2012; Schmidt et al., 2014). Hydrogenous processes can form ferromanganese crusts, which result from slow precipitation of seawater at the seafloor often via microbial mediation (Toth, 1980; Dymond et al., 1984; Bau and Dulski, 1999; Usui and Someya, 1997; Hein et al., 2000; Jach and Dudek, 2005). Diagenetic manganese deposits occur as nodules and precipitate from hydrothermal solutions or pore water (Polgá ri et al., 1991; Oksuz, 2011; Polgá ri et al., 2012), whereas hydrothermal ore deposits are stratabound or occur as irregular bodies and epithermal veins, where they are formed in a marine environment near spreading centers, intraplate seamounts or in subduction-related island arc setting (Roy, 1992; Roy, 1997; Hein et al., 2008; Edwards et al., 2011)....