Get the latest tech news

New source of Oxygen found in deep sea


A chemical reaction could be producing oxygen by splitting water molecules, but its source of energy remains unknown.

The phenomenon was discovered in a region strewn with ancient, plum-sized formations called polymetallic nodules, which could play a part in the oxygen production by catalysing the splitting of water molecules, researchers suspect. Once there, the module drives cylindrical chambers down to close off small sections of the sea floor — together with some seawater — and create “an enclosed microcosm of the seafloor”, the authors write. Eva Stüeken, a biogeochemist at the University of St Andrews, UK, says that the results could also have implications for proposals to look for the signature of possible life in the light spectrum of extrasolar planets.

Get the Android app

Or read this on r/technology

Read more on:

Photo of sea floor

sea floor

Related news:

News photo

Mystery Oxygen Source Discovered on the Sea Floor