Source: Reuters
Author: Zoe Tabary
Ransom-hungry pirates, polar explorers, offshore oil giants – the race for the riches of the world’s final frontier is on.
From Thailand to Alaska, the battle to tap ever-dwindling resources from minerals to fish is spurring new conflicts over who has the right to the treasures of the deep seas.
Continue reading The final frontier: who owns the oceans and their hidden treasures?
Source: Bloomburg BNA
Author: Adam Ellington and Stephan Lee
Once thought too expensive and too difficult, commercial scale mining of the deep sea is poised to become a reality as early as 2019. But scientists warn reaching rare minerals on and under the sea floor could cause irreversible damage to an environment that is still poorly understood.
Continue reading Deep-Sea Mining for Rare-Earth Metals Looms, as Do Environmental Questions
Source: Science Daily
Author: Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
Large quantities of the greenhouse gas methane are stored in the seabed. Fortunately, only a small fraction of the methane reaches the atmosphere, where it acts as a climate-relevant gas, as it is largely degraded within the sediment. This degradation is carried out by a specialized community of microbes, which removes up to 90 percent of the escaping methane. Thus, these microbes are referred to as the “microbial methane filter.” If the greenhouse gas were to rise through the water and into the atmosphere, it could have a significant impact on our climate.
Continue reading Observing the development of a deep-sea greenhouse gas filter
Source: PhysOrg
Author: Bob Yirka
A pair of researchers at Peking University has found evidence that suggests liquid CO2 could be safely sequestered in deep sea sediments. In their paper posted on the open access site Science Advances, Yihua Teng and Dongxiao Zhang describe a model they built to mimic CO2 injections beneath the ocean floor and what it showed.
Continue reading Model suggests sequestering CO2 in deep sea sediments might be viable option
