Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
What started as a search for deep-sea animals on a research cruise ended with the discovery of large lumps of rare-earth metals in the waters between Africa and South America, according to experts from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.
The discovery, which was reported by Popular Science on Tuesday, took place on the maiden voyage of the research vessel SONNE in the tropical Atlantic. While searching for organisms living deep below the surface of the ocean, scientists from the GEOMAR Helmoltz Center and the University of Hamburg discovered softball-sized spheres of manganese.
Additional manganese nodules, ranging from golf ball to bowling ball in size, were discovered in what is being called the largest deposit of its kind ever found in the Atlantic Ocean. The element can be found in all oceans, but the largest manganese deposits are found in the Pacific, explained chief scientist Colin Devey, a geologist at the GEOMAR Helmoltz Center in Kiel.
Rare, old metal balls
Manganese nodules grow extremely slowly, becoming just one to five millimeters bigger over the course of a million years. This means that some of the newly discovered nodules could be more than 10 million years old. They are a potential source of the rare earth elements used by tech firms to create smartphones and other electronic devices, Popular Science noted.
The first deep sea exploration permits, which allow companies to actively search for places to mine nodules and other ocean floor sources of rare earth elements, were granted last summer by the UN’s International Seabed Authority, the website added. The GEOMAR Helmoltz Center is one of those firms exploring the possibility of deep sea mining, having partnered with over two dozen European research institutions to analyze the environmental impact of the practice.
However, that was not the goal of their most recent voyage. Biologists on board were collecting samples using what is known as a epibenthic sled, which is lowered several thousands of meters deep. However, during one recent attempt to gather samples, the sled got caught on the seabed, and when it came back up, the crew found that it had inadvertently collect the metal spheres.
In the abyss
“This discovery shows us how little we know of the seabed of the abyssal ocean, and how many exciting discoveries are still waiting for us,” Dr. Angelika Brandt, a professor at the Center for Natural History at the University of Hamburg, said in a statement last month. “At this station, very few organisms were found in the nets which captured the manganese nodules.”
“It is quite possible that living creatures find the immediate vicinity of the nodules quite inhospitable,” Dr. Brandt added. “The second haul with the epibenthic sled at this station, which sampled over a continuous manganese crust with a thick layer of sediment on top, was quite different. Here the net collected many organisms which we were able to see with the naked eye, and we are already looking forward to the analysis of this sample.”
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