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Dark oxygen in the Pacific Ocean

Dark oxygen in the Pacific Ocean. What do you think about the expressions like: deep-sea mining, polymetallic nodules, megafauna on the seabed, and oxygen in our atmosphere?

August 2024. Reading the Swedish online newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN.) made us curious. One specific article attracted our attention and suddenly we wanted do search for some more information. But how is it possible to present it in an article containing around 370 words?

Take a look at the Pacific Ocean. There are many different points called Pacific trenches and they could be interesting for deep-sea mining. There is one zone that is interesting because of abundant presence of polymetallic nodules. Its name is Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) and it is an environmental management area of the Pacific Ocean.

Deep-sea mining is certain to occur because of the expected need for minerals that are rapidly being depleted from terrestrial sources. This article is presenting more information about that.

The polymetallic nodules are small and look like meatballs, but their size is like a potato. Why are interesting? They contain metals such as manganese and cobalt used to produce batteries. That is why this Clarion-Clipperton Zone and its nodules are a target for deep-sea mining companies.

Can people destroy something?

According to this article a biogeochemist says that it does seem that the nodules are producing oxygen through electrolysis. It is still unknown if this oxygen is important to life on the CCZ seabed. The nodules and surrounding sediment are a habitat for deep-sea life. There are many different tiny microbes but also a larger megafauna such as fish and sea stars.

If the nodules create the oxygen through electrolysis, the deep-sea life probably can be negatively affected by stealing the nodules from the seabed. Can our atmosphere get less oxygen? The oxygen in our atmosphere comes from the photosynthesizing organisms. If it partly comes from the nodules at the seabed, then we must ask ourselves if this project in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone should be stopped.

The idea of having natural geobatteries sounds great, but we should not allow the business needs to destroy the megafauna at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean or any other sea.