the ocean can be a dark and mysterious
0:02
place and the deeper you go the weirder
0:05
it gets as a species we've only explored
0:08
about 5% of the cold Dark Void that
0:11
covers our planet and it just got even
0:14
stranger 5,000 MERS below the surface in
0:17
the pitch black a mysterious source of
0:20
oxygen has just been discovered has the
0:23
call of cthulu finally been answered
0:25
probably not but the truth is much more
0:28
perplexing and may change science
0:30
forever and it was all discovered by
0:36
accident back in 2013 Andrew Sweetman a
0:39
researcher from the Scottish Association
0:41
for Marine Science noticed something
0:44
strange on the ocean floor he was
0:46
studying a region of marine ecosystems
0:48
located between Hawaii and Mexico called
0:51
The claran clipperton Zone a sea bed
0:54
that is larger than the country of India
0:56
as part of his research sweetman's team
0:58
sent down machines designed to measure
1:00
the oxygen levels within this
1:02
environment once at the bottom these
1:04
automated seaf Flor Landers sealed off
1:07
sections of sea bed with cylinders about
1:09
22 cm square in size and measured how
1:13
the concentrations of oxygen in the
1:15
seawater changed over a period of
1:17
several days from their previous
1:19
research in areas around the world
1:21
Sweetman and his team expected to see a
1:23
gradual decline in oxygen levels as
1:25
organisms within the sea waterer
1:27
consumed the oxygen through respiration
1:30
the rate of consumption could be an
1:32
indicator of the amount and health of
1:34
marine microorganisms in the sample and
1:37
could indicate the health of the seabed
1:39
overall but on this particular trip
1:41
something strange happened instead that
1:43
Sweetman had never seen before the
1:46
instruments showed that the sequestered
1:48
water became richer in oxygen over time
1:51
rather than being consumed something was
1:55
producing oxygen this discovery of dark
1:57
oxygen was announced a couple of days
1:59
ago what is happening here and what does
2:01
it mean and why on Earth did they decide
2:03
to call it dark oxygen these findings
2:06
are really interesting so I want to
2:08
cover how oxygen usually works in the
2:10
deep sea what the researchers found and
2:12
their leading theory as to what they
2:14
think is causing it but first I have to
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get into the
Oxygen and Our Oceans
3:09
video I want to start with how oxygen
3:12
usually makes its way down into the
3:13
deepest parts of our oceans almost all
3:16
of Earth's oxygen is produced by
3:18
photosynthesis carried out by Plants
3:20
algae and certain types of bacteria
3:23
you're likely already pretty familiar
3:24
with this process it occurs in
3:25
chloroplast within plant cells which
3:27
contain a green pigment called Chlor
3:29
chlorophyll this pigment captures
3:31
sunlight splits water and carbon dioxide
3:34
and produces sugar and importantly for
3:36
Life Like Us gaseous oxygen as a waste
3:40
product oxygen produced on land is
3:42
spread across the planet through
3:44
atmospheric circulation but how it gets
3:46
deep into the oceans is more complicated
3:48
at the surface oxygen from the
3:50
atmosphere can diffuse directly into the
3:53
surface of water assisted by winds and
3:55
the mixing effect that increases the
3:57
water's surface area in the topmost
3:59
layers water can also be filled with
4:01
photosynthetic microorganisms that are
4:03
producing oxygen directly into the water
4:05
in fact some estimates indicate that
4:07
phytoplankton alone which occur in water
4:09
produce around 50% of the entire
4:12
planet's oxygen however sunlight
4:14
entering the water can only ever travel
4:16
down about 1,000 M into the ocean under
4:18
perfect conditions but usually more like
4:21
200 M or so this means that
4:23
photosynthesis and oxygen availability
4:26
rapidly fall off Beyond this depth so
4:28
how does oxygen reach reach deeper
4:30
layers of water that mostly relies on
4:32
the fact that gases dissolve better in
4:34
cold water than warm water and that cold
4:37
water is also denser than warmer water
4:40
so it sinks this allows polar water to
4:43
soak up and hold onto large amounts of
4:46
oxygen and then be drawn down to the
4:48
ocean floor creating a convection
4:50
current called the thermohaline
4:53
circulation this drives a global
4:55
conveyor belt moving oxygen rich Waters
4:57
across the ocean floor over a
4:59
surprisingly long and slow process
5:02
circulating on time scales between 100
5:04
and a thousand years this provides a
5:07
constant low level of oxygen to the
5:09
ocean floor enabling life to thrive even
5:12
if it does sometimes look a little weird
5:14
this idea that oxygenated ecosystems are
5:16
only possible through photosynthesis and
5:19
that all other ecosystems are kind of
5:20
Lucky to receive some of the offshoot
5:23
oxygen has been the foundation of how we
5:26
understand why life has evolved the way
5:28
it has on these systems and on Earth as
5:30
a whole sweetman's discovery that
5:33
actually there may be a source of oxygen
5:35
on the ocean floor potentially could
5:38
rewrite our understanding of what is
5:40
possible on our
5:43
[Music]
Discovering A New Source of Oxygen - Polymetallic Nodules
5:46
planet initially when Sweetman and his
5:48
team actually retrieved their data they
5:50
actually thought that the sensors they
5:52
were using were faulty because every
5:54
study ever done in the deep sea has only
5:57
ever seen oxygen being consumed assumed
6:00
rather than produced they put the
6:02
results down simply to bad data and
6:05
moved on with other experiments it
6:07
wasn't until 8 years later in 2021 that
6:11
Sweetman went on another research cruise
6:13
and again found the same results for
6:16
this experimental run however the
6:17
researchers has used a different
6:19
measurement method so now two
6:21
independent approaches had produced data
6:23
sets that both showed the same result it
6:26
was at this point that Sweetman realized
6:28
that for the last eight or 9 years he
6:30
may have been ignoring this hugely
6:32
groundbreaking process occurring 4,000 M
6:36
down on the ocean floor further still
6:39
the amount of oxygen being produced
6:41
wasn't insignificant the concentrations
6:43
in these Chambers began to exceed the
6:46
oxygen level normally observed in
6:48
surface waters rich with photosynthetic
6:51
organisms so what was actually going on
6:54
here this is where a unique feature of
6:56
the claran clipon Zone comes into play
6:59
in this area of the Pacific the sea
7:01
floor is covered with small rock-like
7:03
clusters rich in metallic deposits
7:06
called poly metallic nodules you may
7:09
have heard of these clusters before they
7:10
are the resources often targeted by Deep
7:13
Sea mining companies as they full of
7:15
valuable materials like Cobalt manganese
7:17
and nickel critical for various
7:19
industries from battery technologies to
7:21
consumer electronics these poly metallic
7:24
nodules were unique to the Clarian
7:25
clipon Zone that Sweetman was studying
7:28
suggesting that these rocks may have an
7:30
important role in September of 2023
7:33
Sweetman contacted his colleague France
7:35
Gyer a professor of chemistry at
7:37
Northwestern University to discuss
7:39
possible explanations for this oxygen
7:42
source the result of this work was the
7:44
pair coined the term dark oxygen because
7:47
like all good scientists when faced with
7:48
a mysterious phenomena that can't be
7:50
explained you just prefix it with dark
7:52
Giga though did have experience
7:54
investigating novel oxygen sources and
7:57
had previously found that under certain
7:59
conditions salt water in the presence of
8:01
rusted metal can generate small electric
8:04
currents could it be that these metallic
8:06
nodules were performing a simple form of
8:08
electrolysis splitting water into its
8:11
components of hydrogen and oxygen
8:13
through some rudimentary form of
8:15
naturally occurring
The Second Experiment and Electricity Production
8:20
battery to understand what was actually
8:23
happening the team recreated the
8:25
conditions found on the sea floor in a
8:27
laboratory on board their ship the
8:29
Searchers began by sterilizing their
8:31
samples to remove possible oxygen
8:33
producing organisms from the samples of
8:36
nodules and seaf FL sediment to ensure
8:38
that no other sources of oxygen
8:40
generation existed in their experimental
8:42
equipment by enclosing the samples in
8:45
airtight containers they monitored the
8:47
oxygen levels over a period of several
8:49
days consistent with their observations
8:51
on the ocean floor the team observed
8:54
again that the oxygen levels slowly
8:56
increased in the containers despite no
8:59
photosynthetic life being present
9:01
interestingly oxygen levels increased to
9:03
three times the background concentration
9:06
ultimately then slowly plateauing after
9:09
a few days to provide a deeper analysis
9:12
the pair then shipped crates of samples
9:14
to giger's laboratory at Northwestern
9:16
University and what they found was
9:19
shocking literally from the surface of a
9:22
single nodule the team measured voltages
9:24
of up to 0.95 Volts for context here it
9:28
takes about 1.5 of electricity about the
9:30
same as a standard AA battery to split
9:32
seawater through the process of
9:35
electrolysis so here we have some kind
9:37
of interesting facts starting to come
9:39
together we have evidence of some
9:41
voltage generation the oxygen produced
9:43
in their experiment plateaus which could
9:45
indicate that the energy that drives the
9:47
splitting of these water molecules
9:49
becomes somehow depleted so maybe the
9:51
team is correct and that somehow there
9:53
is a form of geological battery in
9:56
operation polymetallic nodules are
9:58
pretty strange structures typically
10:00
forming over millions of years as metals
10:03
from seawater precipitate onto a
10:05
nucleating point usually something like
10:08
a fragment of shell a bone or a rock and
10:10
most of the estimates that I've seen say
10:12
they grow at a rate of 1 to 10 mm per
10:16
million years in the paper they
10:18
hypothesize that the dark oxygen
10:20
production may have partly resulted from
10:23
seawater electrolysis with the necessary
10:26
energy coming from the potential
10:27
difference between metal I ions within
10:30
the nodular layers leading to an
10:31
internal redistribution of electrons
10:34
they go on to say that the geob battery
10:36
hypothesis is further supported by the
10:39
link between the dark oxygen production
10:41
rate and the average surface area of a
10:44
nodule what does that mean that just
10:45
means the bigger these nodules get the
10:47
more oxygen they seem to produce this
10:50
connection could be due to an increased
10:52
abundance of anod and cathode sites or a
10:54
greater abundance of high nickel or
10:56
copper dendritic porous layers in little
10:58
AR nodules however that kind of opens up
11:01
more questions like why didn't this
So, What Does This Discovery Mean For Us?
11:03
process deplete a long long time ago a
11:06
battery in practice is actually a very
11:08
hard thing to get right I appreciate
11:10
here that this is still very early work
11:12
but this feels like kind of a weak
11:14
argument to me because many mechanisms
11:16
could be surface area dependent at the
11:18
moment we just don't really know what is
11:21
actually happening here one point I did
11:23
find interesting though was that there
11:24
was a theory put forward by the
11:26
researchers that potentially the
11:28
initially very very high oxygen
11:30
production rate that ultimately then
11:32
plateaued may have been related to the
11:34
bow wave of the landing Vehicles
11:37
removing sediments from the surface of
11:39
these nodules and exposing
11:42
electrochromically active sites this
11:44
again is kind of surprising to me and
11:46
I'm not entirely sure that I'm convinced
11:48
by that as an explanation in my mind the
11:51
rate at which these nodules grow is so
11:53
incredibly slow that the idea that
11:56
sediment deposition or removal of that
11:58
sediment is ultimately the rate limiting
12:00
step just doesn't really feel that
12:02
reasonable to me but as of yet we have
12:04
very little further information we do
12:06
know though that oxygen it looks like is
12:09
being produced and actually that's a
12:12
really awkward realization for the deep
12:14
sea mining companies that partly funded
12:17
This research if we do find that these
12:20
polymetric nodules provide essential
12:22
sources of oxygen for deep sea life but
12:25
potentially also for our planet as a
12:26
whole then maybe mining these deposits
12:28
for resources could turn out to be a
12:31
really bad idea in response to this
12:33
study Patrick DS a representative of the
12:36
metals company one of these deepsea
12:38
mining companies that funded the work
12:40
said he has serious reservations about
12:42
the findings adding that his own
12:44
analysis suggests sweetman's results are
12:47
due to oxygen contamination from
12:48
external sources which would be very
12:51
convenient say if you were a mining
12:52
company that didn't want its operations
12:54
to ultimately be disturbed apparently a
12:57
rebuttal article is on its from this
12:59
group so we'll just have to wait and see
13:01
however this is something we should take
13:03
seriously back in 2016 marine biologists
13:05
visited sites that were mined in the
13:07
1980s and found that not even bacteria
13:10
had recovered in the mined areas whereas
13:13
in unmined regions nearby marine life
13:16
continued to flourish why such dead
13:19
zones persist for decades is still kind
13:21
of unknown however this should put a
13:24
major asterisk onto strategies for deep
13:26
sea floor mining as the foral divers it
13:29
on nodu rich areas is actually even
13:32
higher than the most diverse tropical
13:35
rainforests a deeper understanding of
13:37
how these oxygen generation mechanisms
13:39
work and if they are significant to
13:41
oxygen levels on our planet either now
13:44
or any time in our past could be
13:46
influential to understanding not only
13:49
how life evolved on our planet but also
13:51
how we look out to our universe to
13:53
determine if what we are seeing out
13:55
there are actually signs of life if
13:58
oxygen can can be created easily and
14:00
commonly without the Need For Life our
14:02
studies looking for molecular oxygen on
14:05
exoplanets might turn up nothing more
14:07
than just a bunch of space rocks this is
14:09
a really fascinating and deep topic and
14:11
if you are interested in it we actually
14:12
did a video very recently with literally
14:14
one of the pioneers of research in this
14:17
field looking for signs of alien life
14:19
that are outl in the universe I'll leave
14:21
a link somewhere or down in the
14:22
description so you can find out more I
14:24
want to know what you think about this
14:26
breakthrough I think at the moment there
14:28
are very little credible other theories
14:31
being put forward but I don't entirely
14:33
believe this battery argument because
14:35
the mechanics and complexity of actually
14:37
making working batteries that don't
14:39
instantaneously deplete themselves is
14:41
pretty tricky to get right what else
14:44
could be causing this tell me what you
14:45
think in the comments down below do you
14:47
agree with this Geo battery hypothesis
14:51
personally like I said I'm not convinced
14:54
if you guys really enjoyed this video
14:55
and you'd like to support the channel
14:57
more than you already are by watching
14:59
feel free to check out our patreon page
15:00
that we literally just launched thank
15:02
you as always for tuning in see you guys
15:04
next week goodbye

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