home.social

#seafloor — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #seafloor, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Anatomy Of A Seafloor Spreading Event Captured By In Situ Seismogeodesy
    --
    doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-107 <-- shared paper
    --
    smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ <-- shared technical media article
    --
    H/T @Seabed 2030
    “🔍 For the first time, scientists have observed seafloor spreading in real time.
    Seafloor spreading is the process by which new oceanic crust is formed at mid-ocean ridges - a geological process that has shaped entire ocean basins over millions of years.
    During a research expedition in the Indian Ocean, scientists had just deployed a suite of instruments when a series of earthquakes triggered a seafloor spreading event, allowing them to observe the process as it unfolded.
    The findings offer rare new insights into how new oceanic crust forms and how the seafloor continues to evolve…”
    --
    “Earth’s outermost layer - the crust - is constantly renewing itself. It’s broken into giant chunks called tectonic plates that pull apart, push against or slide past one another, creating grand geologic features.
    Underwater mountain ranges, or mid-ocean ridges, for instance, generally take shape where two tectonic plates are moving away from each other. Magma can then bubble up in between, solidifying and turning into new oceanic crust as part of a process called seafloor spreading. Although the phenomenon has created entire ocean basins, it remains quite mysterious because it happens so deep in the water.
    Now, for the first time, scientists have observed this dynamic activity happening in real time. They describe their findings - and their stroke of luck - in a study [link above], shedding light on a mechanism that made roughly two-thirds of Earth’s crust…”
    --
    #Seabed2030 #OceanMapping #Hydrospatial #remotesensing #seafloor #seafloorspreading #oceanic #crust #geology #structuralgeology #IndianOcean #earthquake #midoceanridge #instrumentation #marine #seabed #hydrography #model #modeling #mapping #GIS #spatial #tectonicplates #magma #fortuitous #survey #seismogeodetic #monitoring #submarine #rifting #observation #volcanism #seismicity #dyke #fault #faulting #midoceanridge #MOR

  2. A Stunning Map Of The Atlantic Ocean Seafloor — And One Woman’s Pioneering Quest To Publish It
    --
    The geology of the ocean floor is truly spectacular — perhaps even more than land geology. Unfortunately, it's really hard to study.
    --
    zmescience.com/other/geopictur <-- shared technical article
    --
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Th <-- shared Wikipedia page, Marie Tharp
    --
    marietharp.ldeo.columbia.edu/a <-- shared page about Marie Tharp, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
    --
    youtu.be/gsQGOJtwdv0?si=PQsVzv <-- shared video, “… Why We Celebrate Marie Tharp”
    --
    #spatial mapping #mapmaker #cartographer #MarieTharp #remotesensing #sonar #earthobservation #history #model #modeling #spatialanalysis #geology #seafloor #ocean #marine #oceanfloor #AtlanticOcean #geologist #pioneering #paleoceanographer #marinegeology #OceanSpeaks
    @Women+ in Geospatial | #WomenInGeoscience

  3. An enormous but poorly understood region of the global ocean–referred to as the #abyssal benthic boundary layer–lies a few meters above the #seafloor and has only been sampled a handful of times.
    #EarthScience #MarineBiology #sflorg
    sflorg.com/2025/10/mb10052501.

  4. #Oxygen discovery defies knowledge of the deep ocean

    Victoria Gill, Science correspondent, BBC
    July 22, 2024

    "Scientists have discovered '#DarkOxygen' being produced in the #DeepOcean, apparently by lumps of metal on the #seafloor.

    "About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the #ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising - something that requires sunlight.

    "Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic '#nodules' which split seawater - H2O - into hydrogen and oxygen.

    "Several #mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process - and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.

    "'I first saw this in 2013 - an enormous amount of oxygen being produced at the seafloor in complete darkness,' explains lead researcher Prof Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. 'I just ignored it, because I’d been taught - you only get oxygen through #photosynthesis.

    "'Eventually, I realised that for years I’d been ignoring this potentially huge discovery,' he told BBC News.

    "He and his colleagues carried out their research in an area of the deep sea between #Hawaii and #Mexico - part of a vast swathe of seafloor that is covered with these metal nodules. The nodules form when dissolved metals in seawater collect on fragments of shell - or other debris. It's a process that takes millions of years.

    "And because these nodules contain metals like #lithium, #cobalt and #copper - all of which are needed to make batteries - many mining companies are developing technology to collect them and bring them to the surface.

    "But Prof Sweetman says the dark oxygen they make could also support life on the seafloor [and life on Earth!]. And his discovery, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, raises new concerns about the risks of proposed deep-sea mining ventures.

    "The scientists worked out that the metal nodules are able to make oxygen precisely because they act like batteries."

    Read more:
    bbc.com/news/articles/c728ven2

    #OceansAreLife #WaterIsLife #NoDeepSeaMining #DeepSeaMining #DeepSeaMiningMoratorium #Greed #DeepGreen #Oxygen #GerardBarron #DeepSeaLife #Extinction #DeadPlanet

  5. Study challenges assumption that higher #oxygen levels led to rise of multicellular organisms in Earth's oceans phys.org/news/2023-07-assumpti

    Widespread #seafloor #anoxia during generation of the #Ediacaran Shuram carbon isotope excursion onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10

    "there was no major increase in the amount of oxygen when more advanced #fauna began to evolve and dominate Earth. In fact, there was somewhat of a slight decrease"

  6. 17-May-2023
    AWI researchers demonstrate high natural #radioactivity of manganese nodules

    New study shows: Handling manganese nodules can pose health risks
    eurekalert.org/news-releases/9

    Now that puts an interesting twist in the ongoing story of #DeepSeaMining of #PolyMetallicNodules on the #SeaFloor #science #ecology #environment