An international team of researchers discovered small nodules littering the deep ocean floor, too deep for light to penetrate. In the pitch blackness, they conducted a series of tests on the ocean floor. But what they found is that instead of the oxygen levels depleting, they were rising. They traced the source to small rocks, made up of nickel, manganese, lithium, copper and cobalt, excellent resources to make batteries. investigating the natural batteries further, they found the rocks held an electric charge, which interacted with the seawater through electrolysis, releasing oxygen into the deep ocean. This finding may change the current understanding of how aerobic life originated on Earth and potentially how Earth became so oxygen rich in the first place. But more research is necessary to fully understand the implications of this discovery on current models.
There’s also an interest in mining these resources.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/07/240722154949.htm
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