Mining of rare metals on deep sea and ocean floors miles below the surface could create "dark oxygen" and also cause potentially harmful changes to the marine ecosystem, according to new research.

Researchers say the polymetallic nodules that mining companies hope to harvest from the deep-ocean seafloor may be a source of oxygen for the animals, plants and bacteria that live there. This ...

An international team of scientists has found that oxygen is being produced in complete darkness approximately 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) below the ocean's surface. It was previously thought that only ...

In a global first, scientists working in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the North Pacific Ocean have found that metallic nodules on the seafloor produce their own oxygen, dubbed "dark oxygen." When ...

A diver swims next to algae. Ecologists are keen to protect the sea bed, one of the planet's last untouched ecosystems, though companies see opportunity in rocks on the ocean floor which contain ...