The discovery of \u201cdark oxygen\u201d in the ocean\u2019s abyss is raising the stakes in negotiations over whether to mine the seafloor for battery materials \u2014 and how to protect sensitive marine life in the process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Rules for deep-sea mining have been at the heart of talks during the International Seabed Authority\u2019s (ISA) annual meetings in Kingston, Jamaica, that ended Friday. A mining company has already said that after the meetings end, it would submit the first-ever application to exploit minerals from the deep sea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The company\u2019s plans have triggered a race to get rules in place before any mining starts. But there\u2019s so little that humans know about the deep sea that a growing chorus of scientists, advocates, and policymakers are sounding the alarm that there could be grave, unforeseen consequences<\/a>. Evidence of mysterious \u201cdark oxygen\u201d from the abyssal seafloor was published in a prestigious journal in July. It raises new questions about the risks mining might pose to life at the bottom of the ocean that scientists are still trying to understand and is amplifying calls for a moratorium on mining.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe are at a crossroads.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cToday, we are at a crossroads. The decisions we make at this Assembly will shape the future health and productivity of our oceans for generations to come,\u201d Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. said<\/a> in his opening statement<\/a> during the ISA Assembly on July 29th. \u201cWhether it is the undiscovered biodiversity that might unlock the cures for cancer, or the recent discovery just last week of \u2018dark oxygen\u2019 being produced in the deep ocean, by the nodules on the seafloor, we have so much to learn about the deep seabed and the vital role it plays for our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Oxygen is a product of photosynthesis. Plants and plankton use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create sugars and oxygen. That\u2019s what makes the discovery of dark oxygen at the bottom of the abyss<\/a>, with depths between 9,842 to 21,325 feet (3,000 to 6,500 meters), so incredible \u2014 what\u2019s down there that can produce oxygen without sunlight? A paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience<\/em><\/a> <\/em>last week suggests that there\u2019s a completely different and previously unknown process for producing oxygen on Earth, and it comes from arguably the most unexpected of places.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The findings were so surprising the authors themselves were initially skeptical of their own data. They\u2019d set out to document how much oxygen deep-sea organisms use up at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, in an area between Hawaii and Mexico<\/a> that companies are eyeing for mining. They\u2019d sent landers down some 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) to take measurements in spaces closed off to outside currents that would typically bring oxygen from the surface of the sea. The method is sort of like placing a can upside down on the bottom of a pool and documenting what happens inside. They expected to see oxygen levels drop over time in the enclosed area, but they documented the opposite. Thinking something must be wrong with their sensors, they swapped out the equipment and yet kept getting similar readings. When they lifted those landers up, oxygen bubbled out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n They still don\u2019t know for sure how<\/em> the oxygen is produced. But they have a hypothesis. Polymetallic nodules rich in nickel, copper, cobalt, iron, and manganese are strewn across the seafloor \u2014 exactly what mining companies are interested in exploiting and have even described as \u201cbatteries in a rock<\/a>.\u201d They might just be able to produce enough of an electrical charge to split seawater, releasing oxygen through electrolysis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There\u2019s a lot more research to be done to test that hypothesis. The authors of the paper were taking oxygen readings and weren\u2019t looking for higher levels of hydrogen \u2014 which you\u2019d expect to see if these rock batteries are actually capable of splitting water. They brought some nodules up to land to see if they could replicate the process in a lab. That\u2019s how they were able to rule out other possibilities like microbes producing dark oxygen<\/a>. Again, the results were surprising.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe readings were off the chart.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI had approached the problem from the perspective of, you know, there\u2019s no way that these things have this high voltage … and the readings were off the chart,\u201d says Franz Geiger, one of the authors of the paper and a professor of physical chemistry at Northwestern University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The team documented voltage as high as around 950 millivolts \u2014 just shy of the 1.3 to 1.5 volts that would be needed to split seawater or at least get an oxygen-producing half-reaction \u2014 called an oxygen evolution reaction. Out in the ocean where there are vast networks of nodules, the voltage might get high enough to trigger those reactions, they hypothesize.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The research was funded in part by The Metals Company (TMC), the same company planning to apply for a license to start deep-sea mining. The company says it\u2019s conducting \u201cone of the most comprehensive deep-sea research programs in history,\u201d spending more than $200 million on environmental assessments. But now, they\u2019re disputing the findings of the paper published in Nature Geoscience<\/em> last month \u2014 picking a fight with researchers whose findings might not jive with the company\u2019s claim that mining the ocean\u2019s abyss would be a less harmful alternative to mining on land.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When The Verge<\/em> reached out to the company, it pointed us to a statement<\/a> it released saying it was \u201csurprised to see the questionable paper<\/a>\u201d published. The company says it\u2019s still \u201cpreparing a comprehensive rebuttal\u201d but is so far questioning the researchers\u2019 \u201cflawed\u201d methods in part because the data was \u201ccollected under conditions not representative\u201d of the seafloor area where it\u2019s interested in mining. It also says that the paper contradicts other studies and was rejected by other journals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The research team stands by its work. \u201cWe were the worst critics of this paper for a long time. For eight years I discarded the data showing oxygen production, thinking my sensors were faulty. Once we realized something may be going on, we tried to disprove it, but in the end we simply couldn\u2019t,\u201d lead author Andrew Sweetman, a professor at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, says in his own statement<\/a> responding to The Metals Company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dark oxygen has already made waves in Kingston, observers who attended the ISA meetings with advocacy groups and intergovernmental delegations tell The Verge<\/em>. Delegations representing several countries have brought the research up in their opening statements, and there\u2019s reportedly also talk of the research in negotiation rooms and at side events. \u201cIt has come up quite a lot along the corridors as well,\u201d says Pradeep Singh, an expert on ocean governance and a fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability at Helmholtz Centre Potsdam.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unsurprisingly, it\u2019s spurring calls to pump the brakes on mining. \u201cThe significance [of this research] can\u2019t be overestimated,\u201d says David Santillo, a marine biologist and senior scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories based at the University of Exeter. Greenpeace is one of the environmental groups opposing deep-sea mining. \u201cClearly, it\u2019s going to have implications also for the natural systems and the processes on which not just deep sea ecosystems depend, but on which the whole planet depends. We know the value and the importance of oxygen as an element on Earth,\u201d Santillo says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n So far, 32 countries<\/a> have expressed support for either an all-out ban, moratorium, or \u201cprecautionary pause\u201d on deep-sea mining either until there are rules in place to prevent unnecessary harm or until there\u2019s a better understanding of what mining might disturb. That includes five new countries joining the cause during this year\u2019s ISA meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The ISA missed a key deadline<\/a> last year to craft rules \u2014 two years after the island nation of Nauru sent everyone into a tizzy by announcing<\/a> that it would sponsor The Metals Company\u2019s deep-sea mining aspirations. That\u2019s what enables TMC to apply for a mining license now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Whether the ISA will give TMC the green light if it applies this year is another story. Though it missed its initial deadline, the ISA set out an aspirational timeline<\/a> for getting rules in place by 2025. The ISA Council also put out language<\/a> at last year\u2019s negotiations saying commercial mining shouldn\u2019t move forward until those rules are set in place, although that\u2019s not necessarily a legally binding decision. So there\u2019s still a push to put a more official moratorium in place and also to establish a more general conservation policy<\/a> under the ISA for protecting marine environments.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The ISA also voted in a new secretary-general<\/a> on Friday, replacing one who faced allegations<\/a> of getting too cozy<\/a> with mining companies with an oceanographer who will become the first scientist to hold the post. For now, it looks like there are still too many disagreements among delegates on what rules should look like for the ISA to hit its 2025 goal, observers tell The Verge<\/em>. \u201cThey are really far apart on issues of who\u2019s going to pay for damage if it happens? How much liability would the damage incur? Would they simply be required to clean up the mess, if indeed that was even possible?\u201d says Matthew Gianni, who cofounded the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition now calling for a moratorium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Geiger, the study author, isn\u2019t convinced the world may be able to avoid deep-sea mining forever, especially as electric vehicles and renewable energy drive up demand for battery materials. \u201cThe materials are needed, there\u2019s absolutely no question about it. So we may be forced sooner or later to take this step as a society. This work, we hope, informs where and when and how often to do this with the minimized impact on the ecology down there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhat is dark oxygen?<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Why there still aren\u2019t rules for deep-sea mining\u00a0<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n