Marko Holma

Marko and Mark Twain

Marko Holma, geologist

  • Tel. +358 (40) 836 4317
  • Email: Marko.Holma

Me and my planetary science

I have been fascinated by all dead things as long as I can remember. Well, it’s probably wise to clarify that by “dead” I mean things that occur in nature and which were never alive in the first place. Stuff in the universe that fall into this category include planetary objects in this solar system and elsewhere, but since we are still living in the dark ages, I unfortunately don’t have the means to travel boldly were no man has gone before. Therefore, I’ve been forced to focus my interests in our solar system and in particular its third rock, our good old pal the Earth.

I’m especially interested in all processes that govern spatial and temporal emplacement of mountain belts, passive and active margins, rifts, sedimentary basins, magmatic bodies and ore deposits. Many of these things link one way or another to plate tectonic processes, such as subduction and collisions. Uplift, erosion and extensional collapse of elevated mountain ranges and formation and breakup of supercontinents are other topics that are not only exciting but also extremely relevant for understanding geological records. Impact basin infills are yet another valuable source of information for a reader (listener?) of the prevailing rock records.

My hunger for knowledge is greatest for understanding ore deposits and what controls their emplacement in space and time. Different types of ore deposits are a great target for research as their deposition has generally been a result of complex chain of processes affecting one another; thus, ore deposits are thought-provoking entities that give me a good excuse to study all sorts of geological and planetary topics from mountain building and volcanism to impact cratering. Besides, exploration for new ore deposits is simply put absorbing.

Affiliations

  • Muon Solutions Oy, Finland: 2015–present
  • Arctic Planetary Science Institute, Rovaniemi, Finland: 2015–present
  • Past:
    • First Quantum Minerals LTD (FQM FinnEx Oy), Finland and Sweden: 2013–2015
    • Inmet Mining Corporation (Pyhäsalmi Mine Oy), Finland and Sweden: 2008–2013
    • Northland Exploration Finland Oy, Finland and Sweden: 2007–2008
    • Outokumpu Mining Oy, Finland: 2001
    • Geological Survey of Finland, Rovaniemi, Finland: 1999–2000
    • North (Mining) Exploration Sweden AB (Swedish subsidiary of North Ltd), Sweden: 1998
    • Oy SES Finland Ltd, Finland: 1997

Top five field study sites

  • Asia (Kazakhstan 2017)
  • Europe (Serbia 2014)
  • North America (Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California 1997; Nevada 2014; Sonora 2013)
  • Central America (Panama 2010)
  • South America (Peru 2005; Chile 2012)

Top four special courses

  • “Field Mapping of Ore Deposits – Anatomy of a Tilted Porphyry Cu Batholith and its Hydrothermal Alteration Features”. Yerington, Nevada, USA, 2014
  • “Applied Field Techniques in Economic Geology”, Kainuu, Finland, 2013 (A week-long intensive field course given mainly by me for the students of geology of the Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu, Finland)
  • “Paleosedimentology with Special Emphasis on the Precambrian Formations in NW Russia: Geological Excursion through Karelia”. Lake Onega basin, Russia, 2001
  • “High-resolution Secondary Ionisation Mass Spectrometry and Geochronology”. Stockholm, Sweden, 2001

Top five publications

  • Holma, M.J. & Keinänen, V.J., 2007. The Levijärvi-Loukinen gold occurrence: An example of orogenic gold mineralisation with atypical metal association. Geological Survey of Finland, Special Paper 44, 163–184.
  • Holma, M.J., Eilu, P., Ojala, V.J. & Keinänen, V.J., 2007.  The Sirkka Au-Cu-Ni-Co occurrence, northern Finland: an orogenic gold deposit with multimetallic, atypical metal association. In: Andrew et al. (eds.). Digging Deeper. Proceedings of the Ninth Biennial SGA Meeting, Dublin, Ireland 20th–23rd August 2007, 581–584.
  • Piippo, S., Skyttä, P. & Holma, M., 2015. Recognising the Structural Control of Mineral Deposits in Complexly Deformed Precambrian Terranes. In: André-Mayer et al. (eds.). Mineral Resources in a Sustainable World. Proceedings of the 13th SGA Biennial Meeting, 24–27 August 2015, Nancy, France, 1747–1750.
  • Holma, M., Keinänen, V.J., Ojala, V.J. & Eilu, P., 2003. The Levijärvi – Loukinen Au-Ni-Cu occurrence: A Palaeoproterozoic polymetallic orogenic gold mineralisation in the Sirkka Line tectonic structure, northern Finland. In: Eliopoulos et al. (eds.). Mineral exploration and sustainable development. Proceedings of the seventh biennial SGA meeting, Athens, Greece, 24–28 August 2003. p. 1073–1076.

+ Tons of in-house reports for numerous exploration and mining companies.

Other achievements, positions of trust, etc.

  • The Geological Society of Finland, Additional Member in the Executive Committee: 2015