Drilling for minerals deep in the ocean could have immense consequences for the tiny animals at the core of the vast marine food web — and ultimately affect fisheries and the food we find on our ...

A cnidarian is attached to a dead sponge stalk on a manganese nodule in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. Diva Amon and Craig Smith, University of Hawaii at Mānoa Picture an ocean world so deep and dark it ...

A new study led by researchers at the University of Hawaii (UH) at Mānoa published in Nature Communications is the first of its kind to show that waste discharged from deep-sea mining operations in ...

Deep-sea mining in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean could harm ocean life including whales and dolphins, new research shows. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest sci-tech news updates. The ...

Deep sea mining has been off limits thus far, both because it's awfully hard, and because governments haven't yet firmed up regulations around extracting minerals offshore. That might soon change, as ...

President Donald Trump is laser-focused on securing high-value critical minerals for the United States, whether through pushing to buy Greenland or demanding a share of Ukraine’s resources. But ...

The rush to mine the deep ocean is no longer a distant possibility. It’s here, thanks to global demand for minerals like cobalt and nickel rising, meaning governments and corporations are eyeing the ...

Mining the seafloor for valuable metals could send dangerous ripples through ocean food webs. Tiny floating plankton, the base of the food web, can accidentally ingest particles of sediment kicked up ...

Scientists have discovered that deep-sea mining plumes can strip vital nutrition from the ocean’s twilight zone, replacing natural food with nutrient-poor sediment. The resulting “junk food” effect ...

An underwater gold rush may be on the horizon — or rather, a rush to mine the seafloor for manganese, nickel, cobalt and other minerals used in electric vehicles, solar panels and more. Meanwhile, ...

Deep-sea mining targets mineral deposits on the ocean floor, typically at depths of 3,000–6,000 meters. Most attention focuses on polymetallic nodules—potato-sized rocks lying on abyssal plains—and on ...