vents

Deep sea mining

August 19, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Deep sea mining is the extraction of minerals from the ocean floor at depths greater than 660 feet and as much as 21,000 feet below the surface. Active or extinct hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor create sulfide deposits which collect metals such as silver, gold, copper, manganese, cobalt, and zinc. This forms polymetallic nodules – potato-sized rocklike deposits containing these valuable minerals. There are literally trillions of these things scattered over wide areas of ocean floor. The largest of these deposits are in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico in the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone.

Mining companies argue that land-based sources for valuable metals are running out and are critically needed for green technologies like batteries for electric vehicles and manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines. They also claim that mining in the deep sea will be less environmentally damaging than land-based mining.

The deep sea is viewed by many as kind of a watery desert but there are actually diverse and rich ecosystems down there. Most of the animals living in the depths are tiny, but that doesn’t make them any less important. Many can live for a very long time. Some invertebrates live for thousands of years.

There are currently no commercial deep sea mining operations underway. Many countries have outlawed them.

The deep seas are the last mostly unexplored part of the Earth. Deep sea mining will unquestionably be highly destructive to these environments. We don’t really know what the impact of widespread deep sea mining might be, but the world continues to edge ever closer to allowing it to happen.

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Web Links

Can We Mine the World’s Deep Ocean Without Destroying It?

Photo, posted March 30, 2018, courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The cost of methane emissions

April 26, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Stanford University-led research has determined that American oil and gas operations are emitting more than 6 million tons of methane each year. The emissions come from both intentional vents and unintentional leaks.

Methane is the main component of natural gas and losing that much of it through leakage is costing the industry a billion dollars a year just in lost revenue. Adding in the harm to the economy and human well-being caused by adding this much potent greenhouse gas to the atmosphere is estimated to increase the cost of these emissions to $10 billion a year.

These emission and cost estimates are roughly three times the level predicted by the U.S. government. The Stanford numbers are based on roughly a million aerial measurements of wells, pipelines, storage, and transmission facilities in six of the nation’s most productive oil and gas regions located in Texas, New Mexico, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Utah. These areas account for 52% of U.S. onshore oil production and 29% of gas production.

The survey also found that fewer than 2% of the methane emitters are responsible for 50-80% of emissions in four of the regions. It also found that midstream infrastructure – which includes gathering and transmission pipelines, compressor stations, and gas processing plants – is responsible for about half of total emissions.

While the federal government estimates that methane leakage averages about 1% of gas production, the new survey puts the number at 3%, and some regions lose almost 10% to leakage.

Better tracking and fixing these leaks – especially the larger ones – is essential for climate change mitigation.

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Web Links

Methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas operations cost the nation $10 billion per year

Photo, posted June 5, 2015, courtesy of Dave Houseknecht / USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio