Should we mine the deep seafloor?
Date
2017-07-13Author
Beaulieu, Stace E.
Concept link
Graedel, Thomas E
Concept link
Hannington, Mark D.
Concept link
Metadata
Show full item recordCitable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/9207As published
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000605DOI
10.1002/2017EF000605Keyword
Deep-sea mining; Environmental impacts; Manganese nodules; Seafloor massive sulfides; Sustainable developmentAbstract
As land-based mineral resources become increasingly difficult and expensive to acquire, the potential for mining resources from the deep seafloor has become widely discussed and debated. Exploration leases are being granted, and technologies are under development. However, the quantity and quality of the resources are uncertain, and many worry about risks to vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems. Deep-sea mining has become part of the discussion of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In this article we provide a summary of benefits, costs, and uncertainties that surround this potentially attractive but contentious topic.
Description
© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Earth's Future 5 (2017): 655–658, doi:10.1002/2017EF000605.
Collections
Suggested Citation
Earth's Future 5 (2017): 655–658The following license files are associated with this item:
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Water level and seafloor temperature from Onset HOBO U20L loggers deployed on the seafloor adjacent to instrument moorings inside and outside of kelp forests near the Monterey Peninsula, California, USA from June to August 2018 and 2019
Nickols, Kerry J.; Dunbar, Robert B. (Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO). Contact: bco-dmo-data@whoi.edu, 2022-03-30)These data are from Onset HOBO U20L data loggers recording at 1-minute intervals deployed on the seafloor from June to August in 2018 and 2019. The HOBO loggers were deployed adjacent to instrument moorings inside and ... -
Deep seafloor arrivals in long range ocean acoustic propagation
Stephen, Ralph A.; Bolmer, S. Thompson; Udovydchenkov, Ilya A.; Worcester, Peter F.; Dzieciuch, Matthew A.; Andrew, Rex K.; Mercer, James A.; Colosi, John A.; Howe, Bruce M. (Acoustical Society of America, 2013-10)Ocean bottom seismometer observations at 5000 m depth during the long-range ocean acoustic propagation experiment in the North Pacific in 2004 show robust, coherent, late arrivals that are not readily explained by ocean ... -
ONR seafloor natural laboratories on slow- and fast-spreading mid-ocean ridges
Tucholke, Brian E.; Macdonald, Ken C.; Fox, Paul J. (American Geophysical Union, 1991-06-18)Long-term Natural Laboratories for in-depth studies of the seafloor at both a slowspreading (<30 mm/yr) and a fast-spreading (>60 mm/yr) mid-ocean ridge are being established by the Office of Naval Research. The two Natural ...