{"id":16106,"date":"2024-08-03T13:11:30","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T23:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=16106"},"modified":"2024-08-03T13:11:30","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T23:11:30","slug":"new-noteworthy-oxygen-from-rocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=16106","title":{"rendered":"New & Noteworthy: Oxygen from Rocks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oxygen from Rocks: <\/strong>A recent report in the journal Nature Geoscience<\/em> describes how manganese nodules generate oxygen at extreme, lightless ocean depths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research was led by Andrew Sweetman, head of the seafloor ecology and biogeochemistry research group at the Scottish Association for Marine Science. Sweetman and his team made their discovery while conducting research in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean, the same area that is coveted by many corporations as a source of elements needed to make batteries essential for a \u201cgreen\u201d revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a press release from Northwestern University, \u201cthe surprising discovery challenges long-held assumptions that only photosynthetic organisms, such as plants and algae, generate Earth\u2019s oxygen. But the new finding shows there might be another way. It appears oxygen also can be produced at the seafloor, where no light can penetrate, to support the oxygen-breathing (aerobic) sea life living in complete darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweetman, the press release states, \u201cmade the discovery while sampling the seabed of the Clarion-Clipperton zone\u2026 When his team initially detected oxygen, he assumed the equipment must be broken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then enlisted Franz Geiger, of Northwestern University, to help track down a source of the oxygen. Previously, Geiger had found that rust in saltwater can generate electricity. \u201cThe researchers wondered if the deep-ocean\u2019s polymetallic nodules generated enough electricity to produce oxygen\u201d through a process called seawater electrolysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweetman shipped several pounds of the nodules to Geiger\u2019s laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust 1.5 volts \u2013 the same voltage as a typical AA battery \u2013 is enough to split seawater,\u201d the press release states. Researchers recorded voltages of up to 0.95 volts on the surface of single nodules, it went on to say. \u201cAnd when multiple nodules clustered together, the voltage can be much more significant, just like when batteries are connected in a series.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt appears that we discovered a natural \u2018geobattery,\u2019\u201d Geiger is quoted as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geiger believes the findings should force a rethinking of deep-sea mining activities. \u201cIn 2016 and 2017, marine biologists visited sites that were mined in the 1980s and found not even bacteria had recovered in mined areas. In unmined regions, however, marine life flourished,\u201d he was reported as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new research, he said, \u201cputs a major asterisk onto strategies for sea-floor mining as ocean-floor faunal diversity in nodule-rich areas is higher than in the most diverse tropical rainforests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
A nodule from the Clarion-Clipperton zone functions as a geobattery in the laboratory, producing oxygen from seawater. Credit: Northwestern University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxygen from Rocks: A recent report in the journal Nature Geoscience describes how manganese nodules generate oxygen at extreme, lightless ocean depths. The research was led by Andrew Sweetman, head of the seafloor ecology and biogeochemistry research group at the … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[527,17],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-16106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-august-2024","category-marine","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}