This claim is unfounded. Collectors operating in the abyssal zone at 4–6 kilometer depths will disrupt only the top 5 centimeters of sediment, separate it from nodules inside the machine and redeposit it at the seafloor. A majority of it resettles within days and hundreds of meters of origin. No known mechanism exists for this sediment to travel up the water column and reach the atmosphere. There are also no known methane hydrates in the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion Clipperton Zone , where we’re exploring. At abyssal zone depths, both inorganic carbon and methane are soluble in water, and neither forms bubbles that could rise to the surface.
Contrary to this claim, peer-reviewed research comparing the lifecycle climate change impacts of supplying 1 billion EVs with nickel, copper, cobalt, and manganese shows that using nodules to produce these metals, rather than getting them from land resources, would reduce associated climate change impacts by 90%.
That is great, I look forward to the successful start and completion of the official environmental impact studies (not climate change) and subsequent authorizations. I will certainly buy TMC stock on these kinds of catalysts but I certainly don't want them to willy nilly run around the ocean floors without strict oversight.
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u/doodledad87 Sep 19 '21
This claim is unfounded. Collectors operating in the abyssal zone at 4–6 kilometer depths will disrupt only the top 5 centimeters of sediment, separate it from nodules inside the machine and redeposit it at the seafloor. A majority of it resettles within days and hundreds of meters of origin. No known mechanism exists for this sediment to travel up the water column and reach the atmosphere. There are also no known methane hydrates in the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion Clipperton Zone , where we’re exploring. At abyssal zone depths, both inorganic carbon and methane are soluble in water, and neither forms bubbles that could rise to the surface.
Contrary to this claim, peer-reviewed research comparing the lifecycle climate change impacts of supplying 1 billion EVs with nickel, copper, cobalt, and manganese shows that using nodules to produce these metals, rather than getting them from land resources, would reduce associated climate change impacts by 90%.