An international team of scientists has discovered that oxygen is produced in complete darkness at a depth of about 4,000 meters below the ocean’s surface.
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An international team of scientists has discovered that oxygen is being produced by potato-shaped metal nodules thousands of feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The findings were released on Monday Natural Earth Sciences The journal defies the scientific consensus on how oxygen is produced — and may even force a radical rethinking of the origins of complex life on Earth.
The research raises new concerns about the risks of deep-sea mining, with implications for marine science.
A team of scientists, led by Professor Andrew Sweetman of the UK’s Scottish Society for Marine Science, discovered that oxygen was being produced in total darkness about 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) below the ocean’s surface.
It was previously thought that only organisms such as plants and algae could use energy to produce the planet’s oxygen through photosynthesis, which requires sunlight.
“For aerobic life to begin on the planet, oxygen had to be present and we understand that Earth’s oxygen supply began with photosynthetic organisms,” Sweetman said. said.
“But now we know that oxygen is produced in the deep sea where there is no light. So I think we have to rethink questions like where anaerobic life could have started.
Important minerals such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese are found in potato-sized nodules on the sea floor.
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“Dark oxygen” was discovered when researchers were conducting ship-based fieldwork in the Pacific Ocean. To assess the potential impacts of deep-sea mining, the team modeled the seabed of the Clarion-Clapperton zone, a valley plain between Hawaii and Mexico.
The researchers examined several nodules and found that many carried “extremely high” electrical charges, which they said could lead to the splitting of seawater into hydrogen and oxygen through a process known as seawater electrolysis.
“With this discovery, we’ve created a lot of unanswered questions, and I think there’s a lot to think about about how we mine these nodules that are batteries in a rock,” Sweetman said.
He added that more research is needed on dark oxygen production.
Deep sea mining
The study was funded in part by the Canadian Deepwater Mining Corporation Metals Company, which aims to mine a portion of the Clarion-Clapperton zone by late 2025.
The controversial practice of deep-sea mining involves using heavy machinery to remove valuable minerals and metals — such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese — that are found in polymetallic nodules on the sea floor. The end uses of these minerals are wide ranging and include electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and solar panels.
Scientists warn that predicting the full environmental impacts of deep-sea mining is difficult.
Greenpeace activists protest outside the Hilton, Canary Wharf on the opening morning of the annual Deep Sea Mining Summit on April 17, 2024 in London, England, in this handout from Greenpeace.
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Environmental campaign groups, meanwhile, say the practice is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to ecosystem destruction and species extinction.
“The discovery that a process associated with polymetallic nodules produces oxygen in an area targeted by the deep-sea mining industry lends further support to the urgent need for a ban,” said Sophia Senigli, global campaign lead for deep-sea mining at the Deep Sea Conservation Alliance, a non-governmental environmental group.
“This research emphasizes how much we still have to discover and learn about the deep ocean and raises more questions about how deep-sea mining will affect deep-sea life and processes,” Thesenikli said Monday.
