Deep-sea mining tests have ripped across the Pacific seabed, revealing damage that shocks scientists and raises urgent questions about the rush to harvest minerals hidden in the deep. In what researchers describe as the largest study of its kind, animals living in the tracks of mining vehicles declined by 37% compared with untouched seabed, while overall species diversity dropped by about 32%.
The team found more than 4,000 animals in the study area, 90% of them new to science, in a remote zone of the Pacific Ocean. The work was conducted during a field trial in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a 6 million square kilometer region believed to hold tens of billions of tonnes of nickel, cobalt and copper-bearing nodules. The minerals are critical for solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, and demand could double by 2040 according to energy researchers. Yet the ocean depths remain a largely unknown frontier, making the ecological consequences of disturbance especially troubling for scientists and environmentalists alike.
