An international team of scientists has discovered that oxygen is produced in total darkness some 4,000 meters below the surface of the ocean.
Chaluk | Istock | Getty Images
An international team of scientists has discovered that oxygen is produced by potato-shaped metal nodules thousands of feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The findings, which were published Monday in the Geoscience of nature magazine, defy the scientific consensus on how oxygen is produced – and could even force a radical rethinking of the origins of complex life on Earth.
In addition to implications for ocean science, the research raises new concerns about the dangers of deep-sea mining.
A team of scientists led by Professor Andrew Sweetman at the UK’s Scottish Association for Marine Science found that oxygen is produced in total darkness some 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) below the ocean’s surface.
It was previously thought that only living organisms such as plants and algae could use energy to create the planet’s oxygen through a process called photosynthesis, which requires sunlight.
“For aerobic life to begin on the planet, there had to be oxygen, and our understanding was that the oxygen supply on Earth began with photosynthetic organisms,” Sweetman said. he said.
“But we now know that oxygen is produced in the deep sea, where there is no light. I think we therefore need to reconsider questions such as: where could aerobic life have started?”
Critical minerals such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese can be found in potato-sized nodules at the bottom of the sea floor.
Pallava Bagla | Corbis News | Getty Images
“Dark oxygen” was discovered while researchers were conducting field research on ships in the Pacific Ocean. The team sampled the seabed of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an abyssal plain between Hawaii and Mexico, to assess the potential effects of deep-sea mining.
The researchers analyzed multiple nodules and found that many carried a “very high” electrical charge, which they said could lead to seawater breaking down into hydrogen and oxygen through a process called seawater electrolysis.
“Through this discovery, we’ve created a lot of unanswered questions and I think we have a lot to think about in terms of how to mine these nodules, which are essentially batteries in a rock,” Sweetman said.
He added that further research would be needed to produce “dark oxygen”.
Deep water mining
The study was funded in part by a Canadian deepwater mining company Metals Company, which aims to mine in an area of the Clarion-Clapperton belt by the end of 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 can be found in polymetallic nodules on the ocean floor. The end uses of these minerals are wide-ranging and include electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and solar panels.
Scientists have warned that the full environmental impact of deep-sea mining is difficult to predict.
In this handout provided by Greenpeace, Greenpeace activists protest outside the Hilton, Canary Wharf on the morning of the opening of the annual Deepwater Mining Summit on April 17, 2024 in London, England.
Brochure | News Getty Images | Getty Images
Environmental campaign groups, meanwhile, say the practice cannot be done sustainably 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 deepwater mining industry, provides further support for the urgent need for a moratorium,” said Sophia Tseniklis, head of the Global Deepwater Mining Campaign. the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, a non-governmental environmental group.
“This research highlights how much we still have to discover and learn about the deep sea and raises more questions about how deep-sea mining could affect deep-sea life and processes,” Cenikli said Monday.