Credit: NOC / NHM / NERC SMARTEX
Scientists have discovered “dark oxygen” being produced in the deep ocean, apparently by lumps of metal on the seafloor.
About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising – something that requires sunlight.
Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic “nodules” which split seawater – H2O – into hydrogen and oxygen.
Several mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process – and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.
“I first saw this in 2013 – an enormous amount of oxygen being produced at the seafloor in complete darkness,” explains lead researcher Prof Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. “I just ignored it, because I’d been […]
Another natural resource for humans to exploit for the select few that reap enormos profits while further destroying the natural world on which 8 billion depend however unaware. The miners will likely have no restrictions or controls placed on them except by the technical difficulites of extraction in mid ocean.
This is one of the most amazing things i have ever heard!! Do you have more information?
Mary