A look at some of the issues that have caught my eye in the news recently
Deep sea mining: Speculation surrounding the possibility of mining metal rich seafloor nodules has been going on for decades. These nodules grow slowly, so they adsorb high concentrations of metals from seawater, including the increasingly valuable rare earth metals. This resource has not been widely exploited before now because mineral deposits available on land are cheaper and easier to access. Last week, a British company secured a UN permit to explore a large area of the Pacific seafloor.
As geologists we know that the seafloor is home to a wide range of complex processes: redox gradients, bioturbation, microbial communities, mineral precipitation… Can we really be sure of the consequences if we remove significant volumes of metal rich nodules from the seafloor, cutting through and churning up the sediment? As well as environmental concerns, mining could potentially lead to political and economic problems. These nodules offer an untapped source of easy money, and along with it all of the same problems that the resource extraction industry on land faces. Who will get the profit? Which country has right to tax that particular bit of seafloor? Will the resources be managed and traded fairly? These questions need to be considered before we dive in to the modern gold rush.
Read more: BBC news article and a more detailed report from the Lloyds Register Educational Trust in collaboration with the University of Southampton .
Methane hydrates have been nicknamed “burning ice”
Source: USGS
Methane hydrates: Workers in Japan have successfully extracted natural gas from methane hydrates. The gas is pumped up from 300m below the seafloor in water depths of up to 1000 meters.
Natural gas extracted from methane hydrates is a novel energy source; one that could improve Japan’s energy security and reduce their dependence on imported gas. Japan’s internal energy production has dropped since they turned away from nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
There is a possibility that the difficult extraction process in these uncharted deep water territories could destabilise the methane deposits, allowing them to leak into the atmosphere before being converted to CO2. Methane is a far more effective greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, trapping up to 20 times as much heat over a hundred year timeframe.
Read more: Huffington post article
World Water Day: This Friday is World Water Day. The Guardian are focussing on access to clean water in their monthly development podcast. You can contribute your ideas to the thread through comments on their article, or contact them through twitter or email. It would be great if we could together emphasise the need to incorporate good geoscience into water management programmes.
