Researchers have unveiled plans to investigate the mysterious production of 'dark oxygen' on the sea floor ' large amounts of the gas that seem to be coming from a region too deep for sunlight to power photosynthesis. The discovery of the oxygen 4,000 metres below the surface of the Pacific Ocean was first published in 2024 in Nature Geoscience1. The team behind it is embarking on a fresh series of studies to verify their findings and establish what could be causing the phenomenon. At a press conference in London last week, the researchers unveiled a suite of instruments specifically designed to look at oxygen production, either on the sea floor or in laboratory experiments that reproduce deep-sea conditions, including 400 atmospheres of pressure. The Nippon Foundation, a Tokyo-based charity, is funding the follow-up studies with a grant of US$5.2 million. By May, project scientists will travel to the Clarion'Clipperton Zone ' the region between Hawaii and Mexico where the original...
learn more
