Mining minerals found 15,000 feet below sea level could help secure a low-carbon future, but at what cost? Researchers including Thomas Peacock, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, are racing to understand the environmental impact of deep-sea mining. CORRECTION: Clarion-Clipperton Zone footage courtesy of "The DeepCCZ Project."
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1975, manganese nodules were the big thing... Of course, it was just a cover story for the Glomar Explorer to go fishing for a sunken Russian sub. But... the nodules did get the occasional mention in some of the course III classes.
the [inaudible] at 12:00 should be "aphyonid"
Amazing work. Academia has to be tied into this for these reasons exactly.
All I can say is that we screwed it up doing land mining because of our ignorance and now we are about to repeat the error. There is too much we don't know about the oceans, ocean soil, underwater life. The problem here is the unknown unknowns, and is a big problem since a lot of life diversity is on the edge. Risks are too high here...
That's what they're doing, figuring that stuff out. Whether that affects whether we do it or not is a different question.
Mining is easy, law and bullshit is hard, just let the miners do there thing. The less a resource cost, the more you got for less labor and dream bigger for everybody.
@@alloyou5578 that just shows ignorance and basic disregard for the planet, and no respect for the democratic process.
Either we can keep the capitalist system OR we can keep a habitable planet.
@@alloyou5578 Just how we "let them to their thing" in Appalachia or any other part of the world? Without regulations, mining compoines will cause horrible pollution problems for generations to come
Hey, video editor! Great work!
I think this is definatly effecting much more than you all think!!!
No, it doesn't it's 15 000 ft under the water
@@JameBlack yeah and?
I'm curious of who invented the machine ?
Wtf now we are destroying our sea life too
welcome to reality ...
Stop whining about everything. You are more than welcome to return to stone age living on paleo diet and having a life expectancy in your late 20's
@@nikosvithoulkas180 it's not about whining buddy it's about using what we have to not every thing that can be useable
@@prof_as We are using that we really need, not everything we can. It's not even how it was in the ussr, where we were using not that we need, but that someone said us to use. No one ever tried to use everything. It's ineffective.
@@KoWoTun but it is affecting our sea life Tell me if this is the right thing to do,it's like bringing food to our plate by snatching somebody's.what I am saying is we need to find the alternative in which we can maintain the natural balance
Come on.. Do we really need to destroy the sea even more?
This is a study done by a University. We've been offshore drilling for centuries. We're great at it now. Even turn Oil drilling platforms into Artificial Reefs after we're done with them. It becomes a habitat for fish. adventuresinenergy.org/Exploration-and-Production/Restoration-of-Offshore-Sites.html
@@presadisticlaw9717 extracting oil from beneath the surface of ocean floor IS NOT THE SAME like mining the ocean floor.
Ahh so thats what the huge patches on GE's ocean floor images that look like perfect lines and ploughed fields. That's done my head in since google earth showed real ocean bottom seascapes.
... Deep Sea mining hasn't happened on a large scale yet. Those lines are essentially geologic structures.
@@Abanks9012 Even the perfect lines and squares, right angles 📐 etc? (Hey thanks for replying 😉)
@@zerofox7347 yes, even the right angles. I only know this because I was part of the environmental monitoring team for the first (and only.. so far) large scale test of deep sea mining equipment. The structures you see result from plate tectonics and are 100% natural.
It's a really interesting video. While I'm interested in the technology about extracting the minerals in the deep ocean, it's concerning how many risks there are. But like he said, there's a cost to both mining on land and in the water.... Tough decisions will have to be made 😕
technology can do better... that starfish must have been amazed, when it hitched the ride to the surface, on that rock...
@@samuelclemens9516 You are also extremely self-righteous.
Choosing life over profits shouldn't be a tough decision.
How much energy is required to pump up tons of "metallic nodules" from that depth though? Seems incredibly difficult. Also the plume experiment seems like distraction from the larger logistical issues. Whole vibe seems very kickstarter scam
I wonder if small transponders with the same specific gravity dumped at the same time as the sediment would help them tract the debris.
In which sea?
It looks like a vacuum cleaner
It is. More or less.
The R/V (research vehicle) Sally Ride is a Neil Armstrong class research vessel owned by the US Navy, but run by Scripps. It is the second vehicle of its class, the first being R/V Neil Armstrong, also owned by the US Navy and operated by Woods Hole. These vehicles have housing for 24 research personnel plus crew, along with tethers and winches and laboratories as needed to do their work. I consider them some of the best use of tax payer money ever. Just sayin'. I support the sciences and expect my government to do the same.
yeah let's mine out the only untouched place on the planet. wtf
exactly what i was thinking tf
@@abigailchase6373 Seems like a better option then strip mining the land
We need the materials, even if people become more efficient at using stuff. This is a matter of what standard of living there should exist (like whether we want to put copper water pipes in poor areas).
The Mining Company TMC has spent years and millions of dollars on creating a vacuum system and the study they have done shows very little impact on the environment. The World needs a win and I see this as the better choice over strip mining.
So what is the conclusion? Are deep sea plumes manageable or not?
Is deep sea mining already started?
The only reason we mine so much is planned absolecense. Fix that and mine less. If an iPhone costs 2000usd but lasts 30 years with software updates alone I'll buy it.
The reason why mining companies are considering doing this is because of Electric Vehicles. The Batteries for them are driving the demand for Cobalt through the roof. Keep in mind, they're not mining the sea yet. Many of these companies are thinking about mining in Alaska instead. Here's an article that goes further in depth about it: www.miningnewsnorth.com/page/batteries-create-critical-cobalt-situation/5749.html
Exactly
Get there
Can we please just leave the precious delicate deep sea ecosystem alone?
Sure but they're going to mine out the entire earth surface and destroy all land life if they can't mine the meaningless sea floor.
no
There's nothing precious or delicate about the vast expanses of seabed where these things grow. No life And we don't have to mine them, they're just sitting there...we just need to pick them up?
We are running out of resources and you all want electric cars the nickel needs to come from somewhere....
@@hondosmith3172there is definitely an entirely different ecosystem on the sea floor
This is a important reaserch in this period of time we find ourselves, but, I don't think that mining the oceans will be a good a idea.
we will just have to wait for MIT to publish the results then decide
Then how are you going to avoid charging your electric car with a diesel or coal powered generator???
@@jameswest4819 Don't know how to answer your question. I'm a biologist not a economist, as such i have no background in the subject. My opinion is strictly based on current concern about ecology.
@@jameswest4819 Renewable energy -> Storing the energy in batteries -> Charge your car. Tesla have a nice system you can look it up.
Maybe, maybe not. But we are a much better species today when it comes to mining and concern for the planet. Not saying we need to disturb the ocean floor to equip EV's with the battery materials required, but you're not going to determine how to safely and sustainably mine those nodules unless you have researchers and scientists involved.
This is an awesome test! When we get to the Moon and beyond even to Europa and Enceledus and Titan, every bit of this is going to apply toward sample collection and safety.
If biologists think they’re getting a free ride without any consequences from investors, they are deeply deluded. Mining on land won’t just stop either, so you’ll have two sources of destruction.
We do things not because they're useful, we do things because they're profitable. If this ever gets on an industrial scale, the profits will be privatised while the (unpredictable) costs will be socialised.
Why do you want the world to be destroyed, are you anti life? You seem incredibly delusional.
Controversial matter.
It all turns over environment impacts and policy. Huge enterprise issues, Congratulations
"We already fucked up the land, now its time to fuck up the oceans!" Is all I'm hearing from companies wanting to mine the ocean.
i dont see how the land is screwed up, seems pretty ok to me
I always want to go to mit because I saw the possibility of if I go there.
SVEEEEEN!
7:43, 16:36
Amazing
This is real Avatar in water
amazing
No mining!
Might want to use gravity, water to recapture energy when releasing the sediment. You could possibly even drop it in a more controlled manner at the same time so that it’s less disruptive. At scale it seems if it’s a reasonably effective implementation thats likely to matter. Putting a sediment containing perimeter system in place that could be actively adapted using sensors to avoid disruption to wildlife/debris as needed could be beneficial. Load bearing at least hydrofoil hybridized systems with active adapting sails & solar regenerative systems for hybrid drives could be useful also depending on the logistics/constraints of applications reducing energy requirements that tends to be hugely contributive to a lot of pollution, time and energy requirements that tend to create bottlenecks for aquatic operations. If the operation actually bothers to pay for good meteorological forecasting (some pay but not too many know what they’re doing with purchasing and it’s a frequent source of disproportionate risk) to improve optimization of logistics that could significantly reduce energy consumed and efficiency of operations. All of that might create more room to experiment and broader reduction of pollution/environmental disruption risks while improving output. Really need to look at all aspects, including beyond first tier issues. Idk. Just saying.
Coming from a Mining Town, the kind of drama presented is familiar, not insignificant, but not proven to be genuinely honest and reliable either. It is more likely that land-based tech will supersede this if it is obstructed unnecessarily. (Again)
The point I hear espoused in this video is that humanity cannot sort it's geopolitical issues out where these resources currently exist so we should go adulterate the sea floor instead.
False and that kind of dishonest and hyperbolic argument only serves to diminish your position. We can and are sorting out battery materials on the surface. This research is not only for EV manufacturers and their battery makers. It's better if scientists and researchers find out how to mine those nodules safely, or to recommend not mining them at all. But the work has to be done - not everything requires a protest.
If you want poor communities to have copper pipes to bring in water safely, that will need to be mined, and far less humans will be harmed if it is mined far below where any human can go without extreme submarines as opposed to messing up the open-air crust.
I feel so privileged to go to MIT
Good luck
Yeah, they have world experts for cutting edge research in nature destroying technologies.
@@nbharakey oh no
@@nbharakey more like big bucks making tech
gonna ruin the oceans before we even explore them 😭
Why destroy the ocean floor when their is enough minerals on land
I commented and am demonstrating interest
Yes, this video is very informative.
I mined way more than these guys in Subnautica
Notice how there's not a single sea animal in the mock-up videos. If you're not talking about sea life in your planning phase then you don't actually give a fuck about taking care of it. Thomas doesn't even mention the animals. They have to edit the video to contain biologists' voices, because they're the ones who actually care.
we're gonna mine the shit we leave behind in the oceans
14:42 :)
should mine on the moon not in the ocean
if you destroy the moon too much and bring it to earth you could take some mass away and reduce the gravitational pull. you might mess up the tide and you do not want that
So true!!!
One day you'll realize that you can't eat money.
HOW ABOUT NOT!!!
❤If you do seabed mining 12.5nm offshore the east coast of #Mindanao, you will have wealth beyond belief.
Tell me nuclear free hey what's the difference between solar cells or a uranium lithium battery?
How about pushing fpr Hydrogen powered Electric transport vehicles instead battery powered ones. Wouldnt that make a lot more sense in the long run?
Hydrogen loses energy far faster than batteries (particularly as hydrogen particles are so small that they can pass straight through metal containers). Batteries also require less watt-hours to charge up per watt-hour they give back later.
Hello how I can get education in MIT? If I from another country, exactly Russia.
If you cant figure out how to go there, you probably shouldn't.
dragons don’t do em like that 😂
Submit an application during fall season. Also, there is MIT OpenCourseWare that you can use for free.
"If we're gonna have these technologies, we have to find these resources from somewhere." But why do we have to have these technologies? Why don't we simply get real and admit that we can't go on like this? And who are "we"?
People like you, who hates progress and are just contented on what you have, are regressive
@@sujuheart266 I would actually like to live in the Stone Age if I could choose. I don't see it as regression though.
@@nbharakey I'm pretty sure you can live like you're in the Stone Age. You just choose not to. Just leave everything you have behind and go to some secluded place and live out your life. Survival skills like knotting, hunting, etc are a hard requirement before you do that though. It is regression in an objective sense as you can do less, experience less if you live like that. Progression and regression is not a subjective thing.
"Progression and regression is not a subjective thing." Indeed, when the only worldview you have is the one of this culture we were born into. Once you internalize the unspoken assumptions of dominant western culture, you cannot but think that technological progress is the only future worth building.
@@nbharakey You could, in fact, choose that. Nobody is forcing you to live in a modern industrial society. Just get up, drop everything that is post-neolithic, and walk off into the wilderness.
So if F up the land isn't enough we are going to F up the ecosystem of the ocean.
yes, the ocean needs freedom!
Yo
It's not a question of whether we can do a better job mining the ocean to that of the land. The real question is why must we rape our spaceship earth of its minerals when we have the option of mining the planets in our solar system instead. Wake up, this is our home. Why would we strip our home of it's walls to make a fire why would we strip our electric conduit wiring to make money ... and so on and so on and so on.... GET IT!!! If we keep thinking small we will never survive as a species. Think big and we will inherit our galaxy.
We're my cut We all own this plant But fuck them am down to go get it my self Gold Platinum whatever. Go forth and be be fruitful
A lot of negativity here! Do you people have any idea how dependent your everyday lives are on minerals?
Seems a good idea to me as ocean life is generally on the continental shelf.
Yeah but deep sea also contains life we know about + life we don’t know about yet.
You guys really need to leave the ocean alone, first you ruin land and now the deep sea wtf
Sounds and feels bogey! Especially since you don't know enough about the environmental impacts.
Thats the reason for doing research on it
Hi
Hi Marcus
Hi Marcus, how are you? Have been wait6for your comment here for a long time
You do know we probably can’t take much of the ocean in a decade or so right?
Resources are important to our society.
Hello professors. I am virat from India and I want admission in the prestigious Harvard university.could you help me telling what to do exactly. I am very interested in astronomy and computers.
Wrong thread?
@@thiamath no
Quit gaming for a start
@@nikosvithoulkas180 well cause of gaming I got to know many things about space computers and every fucking thing in the world.
Classic Pajeet. LMAO can't make this shit up
"🇩🇪👑👑🇩🇪"to whom it may concern,prof santoniyus, arrival julansen. b.sc, h.c., m.b.a., ph. d. in. progress "3132020" "🇩🇪👑👑🇩🇪" 🇩🇴1:04 P.M.🇩🇴
Just watch the movie Underwater to see the consequence of abyss sea mining
i was right
For the next hundred years, earth is going to be raped by humans like never before
Given The Obvious Life which Lives in Our Oceans. Are We Proposing to Mine Our Oceans because we can Not Find Minerals on the Moon, Mars etc?.
Proposing to harvest/collect these nodules since we don't want to continue to pollute by mining the land
Asteroids have much more minerals but space launches are still too expensive for mining even with elon-musks recovery Rockets. You will need laser power rockets.
@@baloog8 True. So in the meantime getting the minerals we need from the deep oceans in a clean way. DeepGreen is a company that seems like they will accomplish this
going to mars takes so much gas it could probably power a whole city for a few minutes (based on my estimate definitely not accurate), and also it takes 7 months to get there and 10 to get back not even mentioning the extra resources that they need to bring over also.
This video is too long and says too little
All I can say God stop these bad greedy beings.Stop destroying my planet.
Give me a break. There's nothing out there. All they're doing is picking up rocks. Their total impact would be similar to you tilling a flower garden
Just what the ocean needs! Great news.... I guess the sea is already doomed anyways so why not.
I'd LOVE to know if a landlocked Nation got as much say in the communist style approach to all the elements of the deep sea belonging to all mankind?
Stop before it's too late
I'll lose most respect for humans if we decide to mine the deep sea. Just because the industry doesn't want to take responsibility for the source in the Congo doesn't mean we have to invade a whole new biome
Terrible idea, MIT. Please stop.
the experiment is important because researchers have been stonewalled by the industry regarding deep-sea mining. we know that there are going to be very severe consequences if deep-sea mining happens. if we don't have exact data about this, we can't decide whether this is something we should do or not.
stop your greed for money and recycle
So... we need to mine the deep ocean because... blacks.
Google Skype what??
H U H ?
amazing