A new oxygen source found at the bottom of the ocean has scientists scratching their heads. The “dark oxygen,” as some have referred to it, appears to be created by a chemical reaction that splits water molecules, leaving excess amounts of oxygen in its wake.
Researchers have shared their findings on the new source of oxygen in a paper published in Nature Geoscience, and it certainly raises some questions about the reaction we’re seeing take place here. While some have called it “fascinating,” they’ve also admitted that it is frustrating, too, because it “raises a lot of questions and not very many answers.”
Researchers first noticed the “dark oxygen” source in 2013. However, it wasn’t until an expedition put several chambers into place without any photosynthetic organisms within them that the oxygen in the water should have dissipated as other organisms consumed it.
But that didn’t happen. Instead, the researchers noticed that the water actually saw increased oxygen released. This led them to look deeper into the reactions they thought they were seeing. That’s when their instruments showed the phenomenon in more detail, leaving them scratching their heads.
The scientists aren’t exactly sure what is causing the water molecules to split. All they know is that when they split, they are leaving behind additional oxygen in the water around them. It all seems to be tied to several polymetallic nodules, too.
We’ll need to better understand the nodes causing these reactions before we start mining in the deep sea. Otherwise, we could destroy entire ecosystems that rely on the large amounts of oxygen being released around the nodes. Scientists say that if these nodes are releasing so much oxygen, then something around them has to rely on it.
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