Mysterious Oxygen Source Discovered Deep In The Ocean

A new source of oxygen discovered in the Pacific has scientists baffled because the gas appears to be emitted by pebbles.

An international scientific team was so surprised by the discovery that initially the researchers, including those from the Scottish Marine Science Association, thought it was a malfunction in their measuring equipment.

Something is pumping out large amounts of oxygen at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, at depths where a total lack of sunlight makes photosynthesis impossible https://t.co/89l1iYzS5s

— nature (@Nature) July 22, 2024

Indeed, when these scientists sealed a little seabed and seawater, taken at a depth of 4,000 meters, in airtight boxes to measure the evolution of the oxygen content, it tripled in the space of two days. However, in this part of the Pacific and at this depth, darkness is total. Photosynthesis is therefore impossible. This oxygen cannot therefore come from microalgae.

After analysis, these researchers established that this oxygen actually comes from round pebbles, very rich in rare metals, which lie in these deep sea beds. Their work has just been published in the very serious journal Nature Geoscience.

Apparently, the metals contained in these rocks act as a catalyst and allow an electrolysis reaction of sea water to be created, in other words, in the water molecule, H2O splits to release oxygen and hydrogen.

https://t.co/9LS05xXWUr

— Nature Geoscience (@NatureGeosci) July 22, 2024

The discovery is surprising. The observation is that these pebbles carry an electric charge equivalent to that of a 1.5 V battery and this makes this electrolysis reaction entirely possible, in theory.

A discovery that challenges what we know about the origins of life on Earth because until now it was thought that only living beings were capable of producing oxygen by photosynthesis, thanks to light. And the general theory is that this is how oxygen was first produced on Earth, three billion years ago. However, if oxygen also comes from deep ocean rocks plunged into darkness, this allows us to consider other forms of life still unknown and perhaps older, in oxygenated habitats other than photosynthesis.

What is certain, indicate the authors of the study, is that before starting deep-sea mining, these polymetallic rocks arousing much covetousness for the manufacture of batteries or solar panels, it is urgent to better understand all these oxygenation mechanisms to advance our knowledge and protect the ecosystems that depend on them.