A study led by the Scottish Association for Marine Science and conducted in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, the Pacific’s richest area of polymetallic nodules, found that the resources targeted by deep sea mining produce oxygen by reacting with water. Their role in these delicate ecosystems is more complex than previously thought
These days, the International Seabed Authority is evaluating the free way to deep-sea mining
The ocean depths are the least studied ecosystem on the planet. Many funds are needed to conduct studies at 3,4, or 5 thousand meters below sea level. And access to these regions is far from easy. It is mainly because of this lack of data and understanding that the scientific community, by a very large majority, is calling for a halt on the development of deep-sea mining. Deep sea mining activities aim to collect the precious minerals for the transition concentrated on the bottom in some areas of the planet, in the form of cobalt crusts or polymetallic nodules. But the environmental impact of these mines is unknown and difficult to estimate.
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A new scientific research adds a new reason to believe that extracting lithium, zinc, manganese and other minerals from the abysses cannot be an operation without consequences for the delicate balances of those ecosystems.
Polymetallic nodules produce oxygen
What is this about? Polymetallic nodules produce oxygen. No need for sunlight. Their chemical composition reacts with seawater and divides the molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
Until now, the only source of oxygen from the oceans was believed to be marine vegetation through photosynthesis. And that oxygenation was, therefore, a process that did not involve the deeper layers of the ocean, where the O2 molecules would only arrive with the remodeling due to ocean currents.
The systematic removal of polymetallic nodules, therefore, would affect the availability of oxygen in these parts of the ocean.
A new unknown about the environmental impact of underwater mines
The study, conducted by the Scottish Association for Marine Science and published in Nature Geoscience, focused on one of the areas where deep sea mining activities could soon start.
In fact, these days, the international authority that regulates the exploitation of underwater resources in international waters, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), is defining global standards for launching deep-sea mining.
Scientists conducted experiments and measured changes in the amount of oxygen in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, an area of the Pacific rich in polymetallic nodules, and precisely in the region on which a licence for deep sea mining granted to The Metals Company and the island state of Nauru insists.
