A new study suggests that metals scattered about the deep ocean may be producing oxygen, a finding that could strengthen the case against controversial deep-sea mining.
A new study suggests that metals scattered about the deep ocean may be producing oxygen, a finding that could strengthen the case against controversial deep-sea mining.
Scientists have long assumed that plants and other photosynthetic life were the only source of oxygen on Earth. The new study, published in Nature Geoscience, challenges that view, showing that polymetallic nodules, potato-size lumps of minerals found on the seafloor, may be another source.
Scientists made the discovery while sampling the seabed in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a ridge extending 4,500 miles across the eastern Pacific. When they discovered oxygen 13,000 feet underwater, in areas so dark that photosynthesis would be impossible, they initially thought their equipment had malfunctioned. Eventually, they came to suspect the polymetallic nodules were a source of this “dark” oxygen.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
Polymetallic nodules on the seafloor. (Photo Credit: NOAA)
