Scientists investigate ‘dark oxygen’ in deep-sea mining zone

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Startling findings in 2024 suggested that metallic nodules on the sea floor produce oxygen and might support life. Now researchers are planning an expedition to learn more and refute criticism from mining companies Scientists will lower instruments to the seafloor to figure out how metallic nodules are generating oxygen in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, an unexpected phenomenon that has fuelled controversy over deep-sea mining. Researchers, to their surprise, found in 2024 that the potato-sized nodules in the darkness of the Pacific and Indian oceans, including the Pacific’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone, were a source of oxygen, even though it was thought that sunlight and photosynthesis were needed to produce this element on a large scale. This so-called dark oxygen could be supporting life in the darkness at depths of thousands of metres, including microbes, sea
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