With Support From Japan, Oceanographers Resume Study of "Dark Oxygen"

Japan’s Nippon Foundation plans to fund a new study of “dark oxygen,” the recently-discovered ability of polymetallic nodules to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. The small black nodules are coveted by deep-sea miners, who hope to make a fortune off of a new and abundant source of valuable metals – but oceanographers and environmentalists are not so sure.

Last year, a team of researchers led by Prof. Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) visited the Clarion-Clipperton Zone on a project funded by The Metals Company, which hopes to mine …