About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising - something that requires sunlight.
Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic “nodules” which split seawater - H2O - into hydrogen and oxygen.
Several mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process - and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.
this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024
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The Deep Sea
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Creatures of the deep sea (or information/discussion about it!) This can range from fish to tunicates to anything deep sea! Remember to source your content.
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I can almost bet that the nodules are the substrate for a bacterium that thrives and facilitates that chemosynthesis.