Nodules are potato-sized black rocks scattered across the abyssal plain that contain manganese, copper, cobalt and other critical minerals. Mining companies target nodules to supply materials for electric vehicle batteries and other clean-energy technologies. Evidence indicates nodules can generate oxygen in the deep-sea darkness, which could support local marine life and influence ecosystem dynamics. Potential mining operations pose risks of disrupting unique biological processes and habitats on the seafloor. Careful environmental assessment and consideration of ecological consequences are essential before large-scale nodule extraction proceeds.
Scattered across the deep ocean floor are trillions of potato-sized black rocks packed with valuable metals such cobalt and copper. Mining companies want to harvest these nodules to get materials for electric vehicle batteries and other clean energy tech. But recent research suggests the rocks might be producing oxygen in the darkness of the deep seapotentially supporting marine life in ways we're just beginning to understand.
Fieseler: Nodules look like little black potato-sized rocks, and they cover these vast areas of the abyssal plain, the bottom of the ocean. They contain significant amounts of critical minerals like manganese and copper and cobalt, and we didn't even know about them until 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 in the Pacific,
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