Discovery of ¡®dark oxygen¡¯ produced 13,000 feet below ocean surface without sunlight stuns scientists

They say that we know more about the surface of Mars than our ocean floors. That is because, despite the oceans covering over 70 percent of our planet, more than 80 percent of their surface has not been mapped, explored, or even seen by humans.

Now, in a discovery that could change the understanding of how life evolved on our planet, scientists have found a mysterious oxygen source at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 13,000 feet.

Nature

This defies our understanding of how oxygen is formed¡ªthrough photosynthesis. But at such depths, sunlight, which is one of the prerequisites for the production of oxygen, is absent.

Also read: Artificial Photosynthesis Can Grow Food Without Sunlight While Preserving Nutrients

Despite this, to the astonishment of the scientific community, a group of scientists recently discovered an abundance of oxygen, produced by a yet-to-be-identified source. The findings of the study were published in Nature Geoscience earlier this week.

Nature

¡°We have another source of oxygen on the planet, other than photosynthesis,¡± says study co-author Andrew Sweetman, a seafloor ecologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban, UK.

According to scientists, dark oxygen was discovered by chance during another exploration. In 2013, Sweetman and his team were studying seafloor ecosystems in the Clarion¨CClipperton Zone, an area between Hawaii and Mexico, using a module that sinks to the seafloor. To their surprise, the oxygen level measured at the seafloor was high, and over a period of seven days, it only increased.

Nature

Sweetman and his team assumed that the readings were the result of a sensor malfunction, but things changed after he got similar results in 2021 and 2022, even after using different techniques for measurement.

¡°I suddenly realized that for eight years I¡¯d been ignoring this potentially amazing new process, 4,000 meters down on the ocean floor,¡± Sweetman said.

Also read: AI-Powered Robotic Chemist Can Possibly Generate Oxygen On Mars

Sweetman says that the availability of oxygen at such depths means that it could support life there. According to him, before deep-sea mining starts, researchers should map the areas where oxygen production is occurring. Otherwise, ecosystems that have become dependent on that oxygen could collapse.

Nature

¡°If there¡¯s oxygen being produced in large amounts, it¡¯s possibly going to be important for the animals that are living there,¡± he said.

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