Scientists have discovered “dark oxygen” being produced in the deep ocean floor, apparently by lumps of metal on the seafloor.
A recent study published in Nature Geoscience shows oxygen emitted from mineral deposits 4,000 meters below the ocean’s surface on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ).
On the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, there are coal-like mineral rocks, called polymetallic nodules, which typically contain manganese and iron. Scientists have found that these nodules produce oxygen without the process of photosynthesis.
At this depths, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by metallic “nodules” which split seawater (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen.
About half of the world’s oxygen comes from the ocean, but scientists previously believed it was entirely made by marine plants using sunlight for photosynthesis. Plants on land use the same process, where they absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
However, the new study provides evidence that there’s an additional oxygen source on the planet apart from the oxygen produced from photosynthesis.
