Clare Fieseler’s and Jason Jaacks’ reporting was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Middle and co-published with the Submit and Courier.
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Shortly, I’m Rachel Feltman.
Scattered throughout the deep ocean flooring are trillions of potato-sized black rocks full of priceless metals such cobalt and copper. Mining firms wish to harvest these nodules to get supplies for electrical car batteries and different clear power tech. However current analysis suggests the rocks may be producing oxygen within the darkness of the deep sea—probably supporting marine life in methods we’re simply starting to grasp.
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At present we’re joined by Clare Fieseler and Jason Jaacks, who lately explored these mysterious deep-sea rocks in a mini documentary for Scientific American. Jason is a documentary filmmaker and an affiliate professor of journalism on the College of Rhode Island, and Clare is a scientist in addition to a journalist for Canary Media, a nonprofit information outlet centered on clear power and local weather change.
Thanks each a lot for approaching to speak.
Clare Fieseler: Thanks for having us.
Jason Jaacks: Yeah, thanks.
Feltman: So let’s begin with a, a primary query: What are nodules, and the way do scientists assume that they’re shaped?
Fieseler: Nodules appear like little black potato-sized rocks, and so they cowl these huge areas of the abyssal plain, the underside of the ocean. They include vital quantities of crucial minerals like manganese and copper and cobalt, and we didn’t even learn about them till the 1870s, when the HMS Challenger, which was the world’s first oceanographic expedition, went out and dragged up a bunch of stuff from the deep sea within the Pacific, and these black rocks tumbled onto the deck of the ship, and so they’re like, “Oh, what are these?”
At first they had been simply on show in Victorian museums like moon rocks, after which in, like, the Nineteen Fifties and ’60s scientists began to type of notice that—or at the very least they hypothesized—that these had been shaped over hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of years, that they probably began off as little, tiny bits of what they name anuclei, and it’s, like, a shark tooth or a whale ear bone or a bit of pumice from, from an exploded volcano. Elements of particles fall to the ocean flooring, after which by way of a course of known as sorption, they start to nearly accumulate minerals from the seawater in these layers. And truly, when you may reduce into one you’ll see these rings that appear like tree rings, and you’ll age a nodule by counting these rings.
And they also’re infinitely fascinating from a scientific perspective, and now they’re additionally fascinating from an financial perspective, which we’ll in all probability speak about.
Feltman: Positively gonna get into that. However such as you stated these aren’t actually a lot to take a look at at first look, however they will apparently upend our understanding of how life began on Earth. How is that?
Jaacks: One of many outstanding issues about these nodules is that they supply habitat for all types of various creatures, and people are creatures that we will see, however in addition they present habitat for all types of fascinating microbial life.
, a few of these nodules, they’ve a extremely type of tough exterior; there’s lots of little type of nooks and crannies in there. And so one among our sources described these nodules to us as a “Manhattan …”
Feltman: Mm.
Jaacks: “For microbes”: you understand, there’s totally different neighborhoods; there’s totally different type of locations for all of those totally different microbes to, to dwell inside the nodules themselves.
How that may change our understanding about how life started on Earth was that there was a examine that got here out final 12 months that regarded on the manufacturing of oxygen—that these nodules had been truly producing oxygen inside a chamber. They mainly observed that oxygen ranges inside this chamber had been going up. So if that’s, actually, appropriate, then the rocks themselves had been producing oxygen.
Fieseler: And at first they thought it might be this world of microbes that dwell inside the nodule—possibly they are producing the oxygen, proper, not the rock itself. And that may nonetheless be the case, however the supply we interviewed for this movie, Dr. Jeff Marlow, put in type of like this chemical cocktail that acts as a poison to kill these microbes, and after they launched that to their experiment the nodules had been nonetheless producing oxygen from in that chamber.
And so in the event that they efficiently killed all of the microbes that had been dwelling in that nodule, then it should be one thing else. It may be the rock itself, proper? And so the paper may be very preliminary and exploratory, and the scientists even admit, like, “We have to do much more research, however we predict it’s not the microbes; we predict it’s truly the rock itself.”
Feltman: Wow.
Fieseler: How do rocks produce oxygen on the backside of the ocean in full darkness, with out the presence of photosynthesis? Like, that is the mind-blowing aspect of issues. The scientists are nonetheless making an attempt to grasp what that course of is, however they assume it’s one thing known as seawater electrolysis: basically the place the nodule is appearing like a battery to energy a course of that produces this oxygen. And we all know that that exists, however whether or not it’s taking place right here remains to be being investigated.
So yeah, batteries on the backside of the ocean is the important thing takeaway there.
Feltman: Wow, I imply, even simply “Manhattan for microbes” is so evocative, after which the oxygen stuff is, like, nearly somewhat spooky in a really cool method [laughs]. However as Clare alluded to earlier there are different causes to care about these nodules. What in regards to the, the financial curiosity in these nodules? The place’s that coming from?
Fieseler: These nodules include minerals which are completely important for electrical car batteries which are made at the moment. This week I purchased a Kia EV9, which is an electrical car, and in my new automotive, within the big battery beneath my toes as I drive, there’s sufficient cobalt the place you desire a [reliable] provide chain of cobalt if you need type of a clean-car revolution for the USA and for the world. And cobalt exists in excessive portions in these nodules, and cobalt doesn’t actually exist in these dense quantities elsewhere; it’s not as frequent. We get most of our cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has its personal points with human rights abuses and so forth.
And so there are individuals who’ve lengthy thought, “Properly, this looks like a greater method, from a human-rights perspective, to get our cobalt for a inexperienced revolution.” However I feel there’s additionally, like—it’s positively a problematic narrative [laughs].
Feltman: Mm.
Fieseler: And we will speak about that later.
Feltman: Yeah, nicely, that’s truly—it’s a fantastic segue. My subsequent query was simply gonna be: you understand, you guys made a movie in regards to the nodules, so I might love to listen to extra about what tensions exist round them and, and who the gamers are on this dialog.
Jaacks: Yeah, so in making this movie we found this sort of core stress between making an attempt to grasp this atmosphere, this place that we actually don’t know a lot about, and these little potato-sized type of alien rocks from the underside of the ocean it seems have this, you understand, financial potential that we didn’t actually learn about prior. So particularly as we attempt to electrify our economic system these are actually priceless minerals.
So the strain that we actually had been exploring within the movie was: How can we perceive these nodules? , in a method they’re the substrate and so they present this construction for all times on the backside of the ocean, and can we wish to attempt to perceive that, or can we use these sources type of within the brief time period to impress our economies in order that we will avert a number of the worst impacts of, of local weather change?
In order that stress between: What are these rocks for? Have they got, you understand, worth laying on the seafloor as a result of they may be probably producing oxygen or as a result of they supply this complete habitat for what’s, in the end, the default habitat on Earth? I imply, the abyssal plains covers [about] 60 % of, of the floor space of Earth in case you had been to elevate the oceans; that is an immense habitat. So do the nodules have a spot in that, or do they belong in batteries in, in our autos?
And so we interview plenty of scientists who’re as a part of their analysis in finding out the deep, however we additionally take a look at the evolution of the worth of nodules type of economically. And Clare stumbled throughout this unimaginable story that truly led to the rediscovery of the very first deep-sea mining website, which occurred off the coast of South Carolina.
Fieseler: You may be listening to about deep-sea mining for the primary time now—deep-sea mining has been round for about 50 years. It was People that type of invented it.
Within the 19—or late Sixties very rich people, I name them the Sixties model of Silicon bros, you understand, they had been similar to, “Let’s do loopy stuff.” , “We simply put a person on the moon; let’s go dig up minerals from the underside of the ocean.”
And so a rich shipbuilder poured a bunch of cash into this endeavor, and in 1970 they examined it efficiently over 100 miles off the coast of South Carolina. However then, you understand, it by no means was actually economically worthwhile. The know-how was cool, you understand, they wished to show that they may do it, however but lots of these early deep-sea mining firms went bankrupt as a result of the economics had been by no means there.
However what was so fascinating is that they left this legacy of experimentation on the underside of the seafloor. And one of many characters in our movie, Dr. Jason Chaytor, he type of stumbled upon point out of the world’s first deep-sea mining experiment website, which had been fully misplaced by the U.S. authorities. It solely existed in, like, handwritten notes in a storage facility in Woods Gap, Massachusetts, that he took us to.
And he spent years making an attempt to, like, piece collectively what occurred and the place it was, and he received cash from the U.S. authorities to return to simply see, like, “What does this place appear like [more than] 50 years later?” They didn’t know what they had been gonna see. And the very first time I spoke to him about this, I stated, “Properly, what did it appear like if you introduced robots, you understand, to the underside of the ocean [more than] 50 years after mining?” He stated, “It regarded like they had been there yesterday.”
That basically type of, like, gave me goose bumps, and I knew I type of wished to pursue this additional. So I informed Jason, who’s a longtime buddy of mine, I used to be like, “This story’s loopy. This historical past’s loopy. Nobody actually is aware of about it, and the federal government misplaced monitor of it. Like, let’s begin following this.” And that’s type of how this movie got here to be.
Feltman: Very cool. I might love to listen to extra in regards to the examine that the Metals Firm paid for that they’re now contesting the outcomes of. What, what occurred there?
Fieseler: So the Metals Firm, in pursuit of a license to extract minerals in an space past nationwide jurisdiction, which simply means, like, an space of the ocean that doesn’t belong to any nation—it’s, it’s the excessive seas, proper?
Feltman: Mm-hmm.
Fieseler: And technically, below a world treaty that a lot of the world’s international locations have signed, that space is designated below worldwide legislation because the “frequent heritage” of all mankind: the [more than] eight billion individuals alive at the moment and all future generations to come back.
In order that deep-sea space, it belongs to everyone, and so so as to get a license to use it all the international locations which have signed on to this treaty must type of agree on how that’s gonna occur, how they’re gonna try this. And international locations haven’t but agreed on how to do this—they’re, they’re very shut.
And so in preparation for getting approval, in idea, this firm received [exploration permits], so that they’re type of doing the, the research, and so they needed to pay scientists to type of perceive what’s down there, proper? “If we go and mine this space with the approval of all these international locations below this treaty known as the Legislation of the Sea, we have to guarantee that it’s gonna have—you understand, perceive our affect down there.” They needed to pay for this science, and this discovery of oxygen manufacturing was fully surprising, and it simply occurs that the outcomes are simply not nice for the corporate’s gross sales pitch.
Feltman: Mm-hmm.
Fieseler: The gross sales pitch is that it is a “marine desert”; there’s no life down there. These rocks, they’re simply type of sitting on the market like golf balls on a fairway—scoop ’em up and no hurt, no foul, proper? If that’s not the case, as this science is suggesting, in the event that they’re producing oxygen then, you understand, eradicating them, it’s, like, far more dangerous than we thought.
The day that the paper got here out it created lots of hubbub, lots of information protection, and likewise lots of the delegates who had been assembly at that very second of the international locations which have all signed the Legislation of the Sea, they had been speaking in regards to the potential of deep-sea mining, they began citing this new examine. And nearly immediately the Metals Firm, who had funded the analysis, began making an attempt to discredit it.
Feltman: Mm.
Fieseler: There’s a rebuttal on-line that folks can go and discover—in case you take a look at the Metals Firm “darkish oxygen” rebuttal—but it surely’s price mentioning that there’s a peer-review course of right here, proper?
Feltman: Positive.
Fieseler: In case you’re refuting a peer-reviewed examine, then it’s important to submit your arguments and your rebuttal to the peer-reviewed journal the place it was revealed. And so the Metals Firm is within the technique of doing that, however the rebuttal has not but handed peer overview.
Feltman: Hmm.
Fieseler: Proper? So it has not type of gotten the stamp of approval from different friends that their rebuttal has scientific benefit.
Feltman: How would possibly we anticipate the story about these nodules to evolve within the coming months?
Fieseler: There [are] a pair issues taking place. At first the researchers of the “darkish oxygen” examine, they misplaced their funding as a result of their funding was coming from the Metals Firm. However Andrew Sweetman, who was the lead co-author of the examine, he truly received fairly a bit of cash to proceed analysis on this. So analysis on “darkish oxygen” is shifting ahead; that’s one factor.
We’re ready to see if the rebuttal passes peer overview, what that appears like. However, you understand, there’s a brand new participant on this house, and that’s the Trump administration. The Trump administration has put out an govt order to basically help firms to mine the deep sea in areas outdoors of U.S. waters, and that is actually controversial.
Jaacks: So the Worldwide Seabed Authority, they’re this worldwide physique that’s designated to manage how mining firms will transfer ahead. We had been simply at their thirtieth assembly in Kingston, Jamaica, the place their group is headquartered, for the meeting during which all of the delegates from the international locations which have signed on, they had been all there to proceed this international dialog about methods to transfer ahead or whether or not to maneuver ahead.
They didn’t come to a conclusion on the finish of this assembly; they meet twice a 12 months. There’s additionally this stress between an administration that’s making an attempt to maneuver unilaterally and transfer in a distinct path than a world group that was particularly established to manage and provide you with guidelines about how we would exploit these sorts of sources. So, you understand, there’s going to be this persevering with battle between the American place on deep-sea mining and a world one, so we’ll proceed to look at that because it develops.
Feltman: Completely. Thanks each a lot for approaching to speak us by way of this. It’s been nice.
Fieseler: Thanks for having us.
Jaacks: Thanks a lot for having us, yeah. Recognize it.
Feltman: That’s all for at the moment’s episode. For extra on these mysterious nodules, try Clare and Jason’s documentary in regards to the topic over on Scientific American’s YouTube channel. You will discover a hyperlink to that in our present notes.
Science Shortly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, together with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our present. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for extra up-to-date and in-depth science information.
For Scientific American, that is Rachel Feltman. See you subsequent time!
Clare Fieseler’s and Jason Jaacks’ reporting was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Middle and co-published with the Submit and Courier.
