deep-sea mining – Page 8 – Southern Fried Science

Hurricanes, Sharks, Mining the Deep Sea, and the Great American Outdoors – What’s up with the Ocean this week?

August 5, 2020August 11, 2020 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

News

August 5, 2020 Holy Mola we are back! Bass my flounder for I have finned. It has been Half A Year since I last posted anything on Southern Fried Science. Granted, that year is 2020, so I think we can all give each other all the slack we need. I have missed this place, my … Read More “Hurricanes, Sharks, Mining the Deep Sea, and the Great American Outdoors – What’s up with the Ocean this week?” »

Space whales. Space. Whales. SPAAAAACE WHAAAAALES! Weekly Salvage: October 21, 2019

October 21, 2019October 20, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Transcript below.

Dead whales, glass sponges, 3D-printing for the ocean, and more! Weekly Salvage: October 14, 2019

October 14, 2019October 13, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Transcript below.

“The internet may be a series of tubes, but those tubes are mostly underwater” – Weekly Salvage: September 23, 2019

September 23, 2019September 22, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Transcript provided below.

Are we finally going to lead with deep-sea mining? We’re going to lead with deep-sea mining. Welcome to the Weekly Salvage.

#Sharpiegate, mining the deep sea, electric eels, oil, and more! Weekly Salvage: September 16, 2019

September 16, 2019September 16, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Transcript provided below.

Ballard’s hunt for Earhart’s wrecked plane, sink or swim for deep-sea mining, prints of whales, and more! Monday Morning Salvage, August 19, 2019.

August 19, 2019August 19, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Bob Ballard is off on a quest to find the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s Electra 10E. Many attempts have been made to discover the famed aviator’s fate, but never with the technological tools at Robert Ballard’s disposal.

But make no mistake: behind the flashy headlines is a chance to test some of the most advance seafloor searching autonomous systems in the research armada.

BEN (Bathymetric Explorer and Navigator) was made for the University of New Hampshire by marine autonomy tech company ASV Global(Credit: University of New Hampshire)

The motivating photo, however, is a bit of a stretch.

A brutal slog through some of the worst ocean and climate news of the summer. Also, fish cannons. [Tuesday] Morning Salvage: August 13, 2019.

August 13, 2019August 13, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Trump Administration Guts Endangered Species Act, setting back conservation efforts by decades, dooming thousands of charismatic species to extinction, and sealing his legacy as the racist president that is unambiguously worse than Nixon. Look, at this point, if you aren’t calling your representatives on the regular to demand impeachment, I don’t know what to tell you.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

This Satellite Image Shows Everything Wrong With Greenland Right Now.

Ballard announces new plan to search for Amelia Earhart’s plane. Cool.
- Side Note: Ballard’s search for the Titanic has now been revealed as a front to search for two lost US nuclear submarines. Many defense experts also believe Earhart’s flight was used to provide cover as the Navy populated the Pacific with airfields. So perhaps something else is happening here, too.
Whooshh! Salmon Cannons Are A Thing.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1159610222148669440

A global assessment of biodiversity and research effort at active Seafloor Massive Sulphides: Transcript from my talk at the International Seabed Authority.

August 6, 2019August 6, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Conservation, Science

[The following is a transcript from a talk I gave at a side event during Part II of the 25th Session of the International Seabed Authority in July, 2019. It has been lightly edited for clarity.]

I want to change gears this afternoon and talk about a very different kind of mining. For the last two years, Diva and I have been engaged in a data mining project to discover what we can learn and what we still need to learn about biodiversity at hydrothermal vents from the 40-year history of ocean exploration in the deep sea.

What we’ve missed in the Abyss: Mining 40 years of cruise reports for biodiversity and research effort data from deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

August 6, 2019August 6, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Science

“When the RV Knorr set sail for the Galapagos Rift in 1977, the geologists aboard eagerly anticipated observing a deep-sea hydrothermal vent field for the first time. What they did not expect to find was life—abundant and unlike anything ever seen before. A series of dives aboard the HOV Alvin during that expedition revealed not only deep-sea hydrothermal vents but fields of clams and the towering, bright red tubeworms that would become icons of the deep sea. So unexpected was the discovery of these vibrant ecosystems that the ship carried no biological preservatives. The first specimens from the vent field that would soon be named “Garden of Eden” were fixed in vodka from the scientists’ private reserves.”
Thaler and Amon 2019

In the forty years since that first discovery, hundreds of research expedition ventured into the deep oceans to study and understand the ecology of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. In doing so, they discovered thousands of new species, unraveled the secrets of chemosynthesis, and fundamentally altered our understanding of what it means to be alive on this planet. Now, as deep-sea mining crawls slowly towards production, we must transform those discoveries into conservation and management principles to safeguard the diversity and resilience of life in the deep sea.

Biodiversity of hydrothermal vents from around the world. Top: Indian Ocean, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Juan de Fuca Ridge. Bottom: East Pacific Rise, Southwest Pacific, Southern Ocean. Photo credits (top left to bottom right): University of Southampton; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute; Ocean Networks Canada; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute; Nautilus Minerals; University of Southampton.

Though research at hydrothermal vents looms large in the disciplines of deep-sea science, relative to almost any terrestrial system, they are practically unexplored. Over the last 2 years, Drs. Andrew Thaler and Diva Amon have poured through every available cruise report that made a biological observation at the deep-sea hydrothermal vent to assess how disproportionate research effort shapes or perception of hydrothermal vent ecosystems and impacts how we make management decisions in the wake of a new form of anthropogenic disturbance.

A big-hearted iron snail is the first deep-sea species to be declared endangered due to seabed mining.

July 22, 2019July 22, 2019 Andrew Thaler

Conservation, Science

[Note: this article originally appeared on the Deep-sea Mining Observer. It is republished here with permission.]

In 2001, on an expedition to hydrothermal vent fields in the Indian Ocean, researchers made a bizarre discovery. Clustered in small aggregations around the base of a black smoker was an unusual snail, seemingly clad in a suit of armor. Rather than a single, hard, calcareous structure, the snail’s operculum was covered in a series of tough plates. On recovery to the surface, those plates, as well as the snail’s heavy shell, began to rust. This was an Iron Snail.