**Uncover the mystery of dark oxygen at the bottom of the ocean**
The ocean is a mysterious place and what we know about it is very limited. To date, we have only explored about 5% of the depths of the sea. Recently, scientists discovered something extremely strange 5,000 meters below the surface: a source of oxygen like never before.
In 2013, Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Association for Marine Science conducted research on the seabed of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an area between Hawaii and Mexico that is larger than the country of India. In their research, Sweetman and his team used equipment to measure oxygen levels in seawater. These devices are placed in small areas of the seabed and measure how oxygen levels change over time.
Normally, researchers expect oxygen levels to gradually decrease as marine organisms consume oxygen. However, in this study, Sweetman found the opposite: oxygen levels in the water were increasing. This made them suspect that the devices might be malfunctioning. They dismissed this result and continued their research using other methods.
In 2021, Sweetman conducted new research and discovered the same phenomenon again. This time, they used a different measurement method and the results again showed elevated oxygen levels. This has led to the hypothesis that this source of oxygen may be related to metal nodules on the seabed, which often contain precious metals such as cobalt, manganese and nickel.
The research team invited chemist France Gyer from Northwestern University to find out the cause. They hypothesized that the nodules could act as a kind of geological battery. When they come into contact with seawater, electrolysis can occur, splitting the water into oxygen and hydrogen. To test this hypothesis, they recreated the conditions of the seabed in a laboratory on board a research vessel.
Experimental results showed that nodule samples under control conditions produced oxygen levels three times higher than ambient oxygen levels, even though no photosynthetic organisms were present. They also measured a voltage of up to 0.95 volts from the nodule surface, equivalent to the voltage needed to perform water electrolysis.
These nodules form very slowly, only 1 to 10 mm per million years. Research suggests that oxygen production may depend on the surface of the nodules, as larger particles can produce more oxygen. However, many questions remain unanswered, such as why this process does not cease after a long time.
Another hypothesis is that the high initial oxygen production may be related to the research devices exposing electrochemically active sites on the nodule surface. However, this remains only a hypothesis and needs further research to confirm.
If the nodules really do provide a vital source of oxygen for underwater life and can affect global oxygen, their exploitation could have a major impact on the environment. The mining companies that funded the study are skeptical of the results and suggest that there may be oxygen contamination from outside sources. They are preparing to review this study.
This is an important discovery that could change the way we understand life on the ocean floor and could have implications for the study of extraterrestrial life. If oxygen can be produced naturally without living organisms, this could influence the way we search for life on other planets.
If you are interested in this topic, stay tuned for more research and updates from the field. This is a complex and potential problem that opens up many new possibilities for science and space research.
