{"id":244339,"date":"2026-01-21T12:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244339\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:40:10","slug":"world-first-deep-ocean-landers-to-hunt-down-origins-of-dark-oxygen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244339\/","title":{"rendered":"World-first deep-ocean landers to hunt down origins of dark oxygen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers have unveiled two world-first deep-ocean landers designed to probe the origins of dark oxygen, which is produced in complete darkness thousands of feet below the ocean\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

The two landers can reportedly withstand 1,200 times the pressure of the planet\u2019s surface. They are designed to help uncover the origins of dark oxygen, one of the ocean\u2019s best-kept secrets. They resemble space-exploration equipment.<\/p>\n

Dark oxygen, produced about 13,000 feet below the seafloor was first spotted by Andrew Sweetman, PhD, a professor and member of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Pacific Ocean in 2013. <\/p>\n

It then returned to the spotlight after Sweetman\u2019s findings were confirmed and reported in July 2024. The research, published in Nature Geoscience, showed that polymetallic nodules can act like natural batteries, splitting seawater into oxygen and hydrogen. <\/p>\n

Solving oxygen mysteries<\/p>\n

Led by The Nippon Foundation, the new project once again brings in Sweetman. He will join forces with Jeffrey Marlow, PhD, a geologist at Boston University and Mars-rover veteran, and Franz M. Geiger, PhD, a leading chemist at Northwestern University.<\/p>\n

The three-year-long initiative will investigate how oxygen forms in environments completely devoid of sunlight. According to the team, polymetallic nodules<\/a>, also known as manganese nodules, contain highly sought-after metals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese.<\/p>\n

These could help clarify how animal life distributed thousands of feet beneath the waves. \u201cThere\u2019s so much we still don\u2019t know about how our planet works \u2013 these are the kinds of big questions often reserved for exploring other worlds, not our own,\u201d Marlow said. <\/p>\n

\"\"Metallic nodules found in the deep ocean produce oxygen.
Credit: Darren Cool \/ The Nippon Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

To uncover the answer, The Nippon Foundation\u2019s Dark Oxygen Research Initiative (DORI), designed two highly specialized landers. They resemble equipment often associated space exploration<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Named after Sweetman\u2019s daughters, Alisa and Kaia, the landers will determine if the nodules spontaneously interact with salt and water<\/a> to create electricity. They will also investigate whether a biochemical process drives the phenomenon or whether another unknown factor stands behind it.<\/p>\n

The team will submerge Alisa and Kaia in the Clarion Clipperton Zone<\/a> in the central Pacific Ocean later this year. They will be deployed alongside an Aquatic Eddy Covariance (AEC) lander. It will measure oxygen \u2018flux\u2019 in the area to identify patterns in oxygen production.<\/p>\n

Dark oxygen landers<\/p>\n

The two landers will collect water samples, measure electrical activity around the nodules and introduce chemical tracers. They will additionally look for signs of electrochemical or biological processes that could explain oxygen generation in darkness.<\/p>\n

According to Sweetman the landers are the only instruments in the UK that can go to the deepest parts of the ocean. \u201cThis truly is a global research initiative, and one which has global implications,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n

The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO has backed the project as a United Nations (UN) Ocean Decade<\/a> activity. \u201cGiven the amazing abilities that microbes have developed over evolutionary time, we\u2019re excited to see what exactly they\u2019re doing inside polymetallic nodules,\u201d Marlow stated. <\/p>\n

\"\"Metallic or manganese nodules are\u00a0mineral concretions on the seabed.
Credit: Darren Cool \/ The Nippon Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

Geiger noted that the team has already measured significant electrical voltages in controlled lab experiments using recovered nodules. \u201cBut we still don\u2019t know exactly how the electrical potential is established and how oxygen is being produced at the very high pressures found at the abyssal seafloor,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there are several areas of the ocean where dark oxygen may have been identified,\u201d Sweetman concluded. \u201cIt is very exciting because whatever the research shows could help us answer some of the biggest mysteries about life on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team revealed details of their world-first landers at a conference in London. They also showcased the technology designed to probe the phenomenon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers have unveiled two world-first deep-ocean landers designed to probe the origins of dark oxygen, which is produced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[3652,143060,143061,143062,111,139,69,11529,8323,393,1518,13810,147,33922,392,48704],"class_list":{"0":"post-244339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-biology","9":"tag-dark-oxygen","10":"tag-deep-ocean-research","11":"tag-landers","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-oceanography","16":"tag-oxygen","17":"tag-physics","18":"tag-research","19":"tag-robotics","20":"tag-science","21":"tag-sensors","22":"tag-space","23":"tag-sunlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}