[Rockhounds] Metallic minerals on the deep-ocean floor split water to generate 'dark oxygen, ' new study finds

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

An international team of researchers, including a Northwestern University
chemist, has discovered that metallic minerals on the deep-ocean floor
produce oxygen—13,000 feet below the surface.

The surprising discovery challenges long-held assumptions that only
photosynthetic organisms, such as plants and algae, generate Earth's
oxygen. But the new finding shows there might be another way. It appears
oxygen also can be produced at the seafloor—where no light can penetrate—to
support the oxygen-breathing (aerobic) sea life living in complete darkness.

The study, "Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abysmal seafloor,"
was published <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01480-8> July 22
in the journal *Nature Geoscience*.

https://phys.org/news/2024-07-metallic-minerals-deep-ocean-floor.html