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Gifu's Hot Springs Museum! Episode 8: About the Manganese Mines in the Mino Belt

The chert, which is one of the rocks that make up the Mino Belt, is a rock formed by the accumulation of the siliceous shells of radiolarians, a type of plankton, on the deep ocean floor. It was transported from the deep ocean floor in tropical regions to its current location on a plate. When the chert was deposited, hydrothermal activity occurred on the deep ocean floor, forming hydrothermal deposits of manganese and other minerals around the chert deposits. The manganese deposits were transported along with the chert by the plate.
Many manganese deposits formed in this way are known in the Mino Belt, and there were not a few places that once operated as manganese mines.