#Oxygen discovery defies knowledge of the deep ocean
Victoria Gill, Science correspondent, BBC
July 22, 2024
"Scientists have discovered '#DarkOxygen' being produced in the #DeepOcean, 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 taught - you only get oxygen through #photosynthesis.
"'Eventually, I realised that for years I’d been ignoring this potentially huge discovery,' he told BBC News.
"He and his colleagues carried out their research in an area of the deep sea between #Hawaii and #Mexico - part of a vast swathe of seafloor that is covered with these metal nodules. The nodules form when dissolved metals in seawater collect on fragments of shell - or other debris. It's a process that takes millions of years.
"And because these nodules contain metals like #lithium, #cobalt and #copper - all of which are needed to make batteries - many mining companies are developing technology to collect them and bring them to the surface.
"But Prof Sweetman says the dark oxygen they make could also support life on the seafloor [and life on Earth!]. And his discovery, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, raises new concerns about the risks of proposed deep-sea mining ventures.
"The scientists worked out that the metal nodules are able to make oxygen precisely because they act like batteries."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c728ven2v9eo
#WaterIsLife #NoDeepSeaMining #DeepSeaMining #DeepSeaMiningMoratorium #DeepGreen #Oxygen #GerardBarron #DeepSeaLife
#Extinction #DeadPlanet
