263
submitted 3 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/world@lemmy.world

Scientists have discovered “dark oxygen” being produced in the deep ocean, apparently by lumps of metal on the seafloor.

About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising - something that requires sunlight.

Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic “nodules” which split seawater - H2O - into hydrogen and oxygen.

Several mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process - and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

Not OP, and I could be completely wrong on how these specific things work, but it seems to me like they work as a rudimentary voltaic pile:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaic_pile

Take a look at the diagram, and imagine a metal alloy or even little bits of metal close to each other, and imagine the electrolyte is seawater.

It's a super basic accidental nature battery.

Just wait until you hear about basic accidental nature nuclear reactors... And no, I'm not joking.

SCIENCE, BITCH!

this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2024
263 points (98.5% liked)

World News

38955 readers
1661 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS