What is the relationship between hydrothermal vents and deep-sea mining?
Active hydrothermal vents can yield information and provide goods for natural and human benefit. Mining them could mean forgoing new scientific information and future applications that could benefit humankind. Active vents demonstrate the viability of ecosystems largely independent of photosynthesis.
What is mining at hydrothermal vents?
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are one of the seafloor environments now being targeted for mining of their mineral resources, because the “chimneys” that form at vents are particularly rich in metals such as copper that we need for modern technology.
What kinds of technology are being used to find and mine deep-sea resources?
Two technologies being considered for commercial mining of the ocean floor are continuous line bucket system (CLB) and hydraulic suction systems. CLB is the preferred method and transfers the mud up to the ship in a conveyor belt type system.
Is deep-sea mining safe for the ocean?
Scraping and vacuuming the seafloor can destroy habitats and release plumes of sediment that blanket or choke filter-feeding species on the seafloor and fish swimming in the water column. Mining the ocean floor for submerged minerals is a little-known, experimental industry.
Why are hydrothermal vents important?
Hydrothermal vents support unique ecosystems and their communities of organisms in the deep ocean. They help regulate ocean chemistry and circulation. They also provide a laboratory in which scientists can study changes to the ocean and how life on Earth could have begun.
What is deep-sea mining?
Deep-sea mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the deep sea – the area of the ocean below 200 m. Depleting terrestrial deposits and rising demand for metals are stimulating interest in the deep sea, with commercial mining imminent.
Why is deep-sea mining important?
Why are there such valuable materials in the deep ocean? Natural hydrothermal geysers on the deep ocean floor regularly vent rich concentrations of metals and minerals from the earth’s core, forming valuable seams on the ocean floor that can yield up to 10 times the precious metals as in comparable land-based mining.
What equipment is used for deep sea mining?
The deposits are mined using either hydraulic pumps or bucket systems that take ore to the surface to be processed. Marine minerals include sea-dredged and seabed minerals.
What is the deep sea vent theory?
The deep sea (or hydrothermal) vent theory for the origin of life on Earth posits that life may have begun at submarine hydrothermal vents, where hydrogen-rich fluids emerged from below the sea floor and merged with carbon dioxide-rich ocean water. Recent research has found prolific life…
Where are hydrothermal vents found?
A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seafloor from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at spreading centers, ocean basins, and hotspots. Hydrothermal deposits are rocks…
What do hydrothermal vents release?
On Earth, hydrothermal vents can release hydrogen as the hot water interacts with iron in the heated rocks. The iron steals the oxygen from the water molecules and hydrogen bubbles up.
What are hydrothermal vents made of?
Hydrothermal vents are simply underwater geysers, comprised of cracks or fissures in the ocean floor from which mineral-rich and geothermally heated water bursts forth. This water is heated by radioactive decay from the planet’s continuous formation, appearing as billows of clouds projecting from the fissure.