There's something strange at the bottom of the ocean...

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Sources:
Sweetman, A. K., Smith, A. J., de Jonge, D. S., Hahn, T., Schroedl, P., Silverstein, M., ... & Marlow, J. J. (2024). Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor. Nature Geoscience, 1-3.
Guardian News and Media. (2024, July 22). “Dark oxygen” in depths of Pacific Ocean could force rethink about origins of life. The Guardian. www.theguardia...
Ettwig, K. F., Speth, D. R., Reimann, J., Wu, M. L., Jetten, M. S., & Keltjens, J. T. (2012). Bacterial oxygen production in the dark. Frontiers in microbiology, 3, 273.

[@the_newt_nest]

When I heard about this I also heard about the deep sea mining of these nodules, and I thought to myself "oh no, we're going to destroy something else that made our existence on Earth livable, aren't we." Hopefully with scientific research, lawmakers can use the evidence of how vital these ecosystems are to restrict mining. Hopefully.

[@TurbopropPuppy]

lawmakers? using science? restricting the glorious invisible hand of the free market? you oughta try standup!

[@larrymantic2635]

I mean, we’re using TOO much energy and water to make terrible pictures, so I wouldn’t put it past those richies to cause the death of us

[@formallizard7085]

The history of pesticides has something contrary to say.

[@artosbear]

Our lawmakers are paid by the people doing the damage

[@formallizard7085]

@@artosbear I think I'm gonna be the first to say that it might not just be conspiracy and corruption, but incompetence too.

[@celarts5752]

Gods I love the silly shapes that deep sea corals and sponges get themselves into

[@The.Heart.Unceasing]

shallow reefs sessile animals : graceful, colorful, branching structures deep see sessile animals : *bubbles*

[@Doc_Fartens]

"I don't know what Dark Matter is...cuz I'm not a nerd!" Don't worry OL, even the nerds don't know what Dark Matter is.

[@metal_pipe9764]

I don't either

[@ethanstyant9704]

Pretty sure it's called Dark matter specifically because we have no idea what it is

[@KingNedya]

​@@ethanstyant9704I'm pretty sure it was called dark matter because, other than gravitationally, it doesn't interact at all with regular matter or energy, including light, rendering it invisible and therefore, against the black background of space, dark.

[@1RandomToaster]

Dark matter is a phase of matter where it gets really into Higgs Boson and other similar bands.

[@TlalocTemporal]

​@@KingNedya-- Lots of physicists don't even think dark matter is matter, we just don't know enough about gravity.

[@ShaneSemler]

“But do we really need oxygen?” - Mining Industry

[@secondbeamship]

The rate we consume oxygen probably won’t be significant on Human time scales. Might affect our grandchildren though.

[@darkleaf-zm8bp]

Hahahaha

[@ardellolnes5663]

Breathe less... we want more money! CEO evil corporation

[@AV-we6wo]

'Building better worlds' I don't know if there's something in the 'Alien' lore about the origins of Weyland-Yutani, but it would be fitting if they started as a deep sea mining corporation.

[@Freddisred]

​@@secondbeamshipHow is that not still significant to human time scales?

[@FloriOnRails]

"It's like Netflix but for people who like trains." I'd feel attacked if it wasn't so accurate. 😂

[@NewMessage]

Ah, electrolisis... that's why fish are all hairless. It all adds up.

[@GoblinWife]

@NewMessage your thumbnail spikes my anxiety lol

[@skelo11]

man it sure is nice having a fear of deep waters but being so drawn to the creatures that live there its like a curse or something

[@sickcrabfactz]

a true ocean lover knows she’s worthy of fear

[@mcsteevington5238]

I love your ending statement, “You don’t need to go into space to find aliens.” It beautifully articulates how bizarre marine life can be, and boy howdy have you been doing an excellent job showing us. Thank you for my monthly ocean-based science lesson Ms. Octopus Lady

[@luckyloonies4378]

Even as a boy who had read the stuff about the deep ocean metallic nods, I had always felt that those metallic nods were somehow connected to the life surrounding it. Now, we finally have found out that those are the oxygen generators of the deep ocean. Based on this information, deep sea/ocean mining is not just harming the environment. It basically removes the most important thing that deep ocean life depends on. Deep ocean mining is killing off any chance that life can live in the deep ocean.

[@usedcolouringbook8798]

Awaken Mustakrakesh

[@kingpest13]

Bulldozing the ocean floor sounds like a bad idea. Once it starts it will not stop. Think about the company that is mining minerals the old fashioned expensive way watching another company scoop it up for half the price. What is that company going to immediately do when metal prices drop?

[@Pawsome_Opossum]

Looking at the political side, how do we decide who gets rights to mine these deposits anyway? Like, a mining company in the U.S. leasing out the mineral rights on U.S. government land is one thing, but I’d imagine that almost all of these deposits are in international waters. Do we just do an Antarctica and give the biggest countries what they “deserve” or make some mineral claim that doesn’t just effectively extend territorial water? Even if we surpass (or just blatantly ignore) the environmental and ethical concerns facing underwater mining, it’s sure to cause plenty of international conflict.

[@larrymantic2635]

Ah, destroying the environment for no good reason…

[@ferociousfeind8538]

and, of course, it's not cheaper. It's probably magnitudes more expensive, just shoving most of the cost out and away, into the future, for worse-off humans to pay back, _with interest,_ later

[@rolmodel12.]

One could argue bulldozing large swaths of ANY ecosystem (ie; um, everywhere) is a very bad idea. It is a short term "solution" to things that shouldn't be as large of a problem that they are... but, ya know, money to be made and stuff.

[@BierBart12]

@@Pawsome_Opossum Don't forget the sheer amount of companies that'll just start mining without even asking for permission, since it's conveniently difficult to track such operations out at sea

[@loorthedarkelf8353]

Fully understand not wanting to research a topic that will make you sad. Thanks for spreading awareness and being honest. There are other KZbinrs whose whole channel is Digging Deep Into Things That Make People Sad To Think About cause that info is important. You may not be that person, but you can always consult with someone should *they* decide to brave those waters. You don't have to do it all, but your expertise is still important to the broader conversation. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and letting us know where your boundaries are, love your work to bits!!!!

[@angrylemon1420]

Feel like "whats producing oxygen down there?" Was actually more like "WHATS PRODUCING OXYGEN DOWN THERE!?!?!?!?"

[@clown_around_town638]

There is a NASA space program going on where there are many challanges which a team has to do and one of them was chemosynthesis based sea life which DIDN'T rely on photosynthesis. You just saved a shovels' load of time on how the sea gets oxygen so thank youuuuuu :>

[@hellofellowbotsss]

Ok, but when has something found at the bottom of the ocean *not* been strange?

[@starmaker75]

What next, we get negative gravity.

[@cornbabylaughter]

that's why I love the deep sea

[@AncientWildTV]

yeah, the deep ocean is full of mysteries and bizarre creatures

[@rawn3rve]

​​@@cornbabylaughterthat's why i hate the deep sea

[@Mischievous_Moth]

@@rawn3rve There are two kinds of Marine Biologists

[@happyhappyman1126]

"I dont study physics cuz I am not a nerd" hits right in the feelings ;-;

[@OctopusLady]

lmao get over it NERD _high fives other much cooler marine biologists and skateboards away_

[@happyhappyman1126]

@@OctopusLady [quantum tunnels out of existence with shame]

[@erukaseven]

​@@happyhappyman1126 😂 this was a beautiful, if short comment thread.

[@cornbabylaughter]

​@@OctopusLady*scooters away because i can't ride a skateboard*

[@areskristoffer]

@OctopusLady rollerblades away cuz it's the most radical option (& now I'm imagining an octopus on rollerblades)

[@larysab.2436]

The Octopus Lady is that person I can listen talk about daymn oxygen farting rocks and get totally hyped about them xD

[@OmegaSolidus742]

The composite metals joke killed me, but i cant lie. I was a little disappointed you didnt go for the low hanging fruit and make it Metallica, Babymetal, and XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX

[@shikazeevods]

NODULE BUCKET

[@emilyreames7748]

The lack of deep sea mining video is understandable and honestly appreciated: I come here for the Really Neat and also Hopeful view of the weirdness in the sea, I very much appreciate your awareness of the more doom-and-gloom aspects, and that you share pointers on how to learn more, but I appreciate just as much that it isn't the focus. We hairless primates looked in awe at the stars long ago, and slowly learned to understand them. You share that same awe and learning of the depths now.

[@geraldfrost4710]

Not even physicists are sure what dark matter is. Other than they can't see it, and when they add it into the equations, it makes things work out. "So, it's like a fudge factor of 75%?" "No. It's dark matter!" "So what is dark matter?" "We're not sure, but trust me, it exists." (personally, I think it's a range limitation of the quantum gravity particle, like the range limitation on the strong force. At least, that's what my back-of-napkin calculations show...)

[@geraldfrost4710]

On land metals rust and dissolve in water. This is because the atmosphere is rich in oxygen. The water goes out to sea. Sea water is salty, which is like the mid step in a battery. The metal plates out because of the pressure, releasing the oxygen it brought with it, and in the process makes the nodules. How deep into the sea floor muck do the nodules extend? That they are all about the same size indicates some sort of stop point in their growth. I suggest sediment covering the old ones, and micro-meteorites becoming the nucleating points for new ones. To prove this, we gotta dig a hole. Cut me in as a consultant on the grant proposal.

[@ferociousfeind8538]

while superficially it seems like that, it's more like the invisible atmosphere between you in your house, and a tree far off in the outside world. It's most definitely there, it's the only explanation for how half a dozen categories of deep-space observation get fudged up like that, and it's only mysterious if you phrase it like "an invisible substance somewhere between your eye and the tree in the distance, that fills the vast majority of the volume of the whole world, that doesn't reflect light at all, and magically makes equations work if you add it to them" like, sure, that's A way to describe it, but you're missing 99% of the evidence incontrovertibly proving there is SOMETHING, whole huge nebula-sized clouds of SOMETHING there that's messing with light in transit, and simply not reflecting any light of its own!

[@NovaSaber]

Dark matter is something that has gravity like normal matter but doesn't interact with light. We can tell where there is more or less of it and it's locations (particularly where it ends up after two galaxies collide) are most consistent with it being particles that barely interact with each other either.

[@frosty_mentos1238]

It's a unicorn tbh.

[@ferociousfeind8538]

@geraldfrost4710 oh also, it's definitely not a "range limitation on gravity of ordinary matter" because the issue SPECIFICALLY is that the ordinary matter we saw would generate TOO LITTLE gravity in simulations compared to what we observe. We need MORE gravity to replicate observed reality, not less!!!

[@NewMessage]

Not gonna lie.. when I read "Dark Oxygen production at the Abyssal seafloor", I thought it was a new netflix scifi series.

[@BrianHaddad]

Your scripts/narrations are some of the best on KZbin. I LOVE listening to you talk about these things! Thank you for the great videos!

[@Stranger_Root]

I am a mariner working on deep ocean research vessels and I can legit say that there is nothing more amusing than a boat full of scientists all absolutely baffled that everything they have collectively studied and come to understand is not doing the thing it is supposed to, but is in fact doing something way better and more interesting. I just drive the boat, nerds. I don't need to understand nitrogen cycling in the abyssal zone. I just have to plunge extremely expensive equipment into it and launch submarines.

[@allangarddegriss6798]

Dark Oxygen sounds like a low budget Asylum horror film about an invisible monster killing divers studying sharks or something

[@7ngelVrk]

This is my first video I'm watching from you, I'm a 11th grader (16) from India and I essentially have a crush on science and I watch a TON of videos on topics as chemistry biology and physics. You're so so interesting to listen to please keep it up!! 😭

[@dpro_489]

Octopus Lady is back

[@hojunlee6826]

I never new this before and this is already very interesting

[@tonylovesmusic6806]

you have become my favorite channel

[@supercelllover7695]

Welcome to the community!

[@seichhornchen]

"How did they figure out that there was DOP at the ocean floor?" Me> "BECAUSE THEY WERE DOPE!" Octopus Lady> [Real answer] Me> "God damn it."

[@raevynphiar9581]

This was a nice treat today. Getting a video from one of my favorite creators on a day where I had to make a hard end-of-life appointment for my cat. Your lighthearted joy while you talk about science is fantastic.

[@andrewbess716]

Listening to The Octopus Lady talk about things she finds entertaining is very satisfying and educational. Wish more channels had the same sort of love for their subject matter TOL shows.

[@AspenBrightsoul]

Dark matter is a throwaway explination used in physics to explain why every calculation humanity makes is 90ish% off on the mass side. So you slap a lable down and keep working till we find the missing 99% of the mass of the universe we misplaced.

[@johnwalters1341]

This is all very interesting and unexpected. The first question that occurred to me was: If dark oxygen is being produced by electrolysis of water, then there should also be production of dark hydrogen--something to look for. There's a lot of interest these days in ways of generating hydrogen to power fuel cells and other applications, and it is turning out that hydrogen is being produced abiotically in places people had never thought of looking for it. Interest in mining the manganese nodules (as I'm used to hearing them being called) was very high in the middle 1970s, about the time I was receiving my Ph.D. in biological oceanography. I spent several months on a NOAA cruise to the area in question, doing baseline studies of the environment before manganese nodule mining could begin. In particular, Howard Hughes was spending massive amounts of money developing a giant nodule harvester, which would float on the surface and send what was essentially a giant vacuum cleaner down to the ocean bottom to vacuum up the nodules to the surface. It turned out that Hughes's project was actually a cover story for the CIA, which used his rig in an attempt to recover a Soviet submarine that had sunk in the deep ocean. The sub broke in two as it was being lifted to the surface, and I don't remember if they were able to recover any part of the sub. But the whole escapade pretty much ended serious interest in manganese nodule harvesting, at least for that time. The nodules are still there, and I suppose someone will figure out a way of making money out of them.

[@informitas0117]

I can't believe you managed to catch the elusive "Lesser Spotted Question Mark" at abyssal depth. Impressive.

[@Airship007Johnston]

Another absolute banger

[@skeletonwithagun2119]

I love how you characterize the researchers in this, like totally astounded and desperately trying to prove any if this wild stuff they're seeing

[@eesachariwala2145]

firstly gotta love the babymetal mention, and the last week tonight mention (love them both), secondly did i just see a living organism at 4000m that looks like someone took a bundle of sticks and stuck tennis balls on the ends??????????? anyhow another rlly interesting video

[@LightBlueVans]

YES! thank you for this! i love hearing you explain things and i’d heard about this but felt out of my depth, also life has been in the way more often than not.

[@RainbowDark]

Awesome video! I saw posts about it last week and I literally thought "damn this looks deeply interesting, I wish there was a digestible way to understand the implications" and this is just perfect. So nicely explained and edited, with really good vulgarization, thank you for your work!

[@haydenw7981]

As a biochemist I was not expecting nor did I appreciate an inorganic chemistry lesson jump scare when clicking on this video

[@AlyxForest]

This is precisely why I find science so fascinating. Chunks of metal at the bottom of the ocean acting like batteries and making oxygen? So cool. We should definitely leave these places alone.

[@1RandomToaster]

Ok so this has me so excited about the Europa mission that I almost knocked over my nodule bucket!

[@Nobody_Fn_Important]

ya know, maybe nodules would be a good sign of oxygen or life on other planets like Mars, if they find nodule like rocks or patterns on what could be ancient ocean beds it could be sign there was oxygen and life, so finding out about these here is a good sign of life out there as well, and destroying them just for our needs sure is a sign that we are in need of deep therapy

[@areskristoffer]

Nebulators, nebulites, or nebulizers all sound good to me. Nebulings? Whatever gets the most out of that lisp I like so much.

[@anacsadder]

OL: Oxygen made without photosynthesis... Me: Ooh, neat! OL: Which might not sound very interesting... Me: No, no, that's definitely very interesting.

[@cawareyoudoin7379]

0:56 Well, the good news is that physicists aren't sure what dark matter is either!

[@ri4ality379]

Ahhhhh i love your Videos soooo much! I am jumping in the middle of the night with joy about someone else having the same enthusiasm talking about oceanstuff!

[@Writer-Two]

It's nice to find a fellow viewer of Last Week Tonight!

[@usedcolouringbook8798]

I would like it if we would make our own. There's so much material in land fills waiting to be reused and I bet we can create nodules pretty easily.

[@poindextertunes]

Love your channel! I would really love to see you cover Oarfish. I feel like theres nothing quite like Oarfish and they have so much lore surrounding them!

[@eyesotherworldly]

Dope video and dope Baby Metal reference 🤘🐙 Love you OL!

[@derskalde4973]

They were so close to greatness! Why couldn't they have added "Emission" or something like that at the end (I don't know which words would qualify)? Then it would've been DOPE.

[@Maybe_a_person_3]

Woohoo new cephalapod women upload

[@lykonic1763]

Hell yeah we love headfoot female here

[@maybe_a_goober]

cephalapod person🤯

[@Maybe_a_person_3]

@@maybe_a_goober who the hell are you? 😭 (lol)

[@PrairieKass]

cephalopods are gender

[@Maybe_a_person_3]

Yippee my comment got a heart

[@Orlando2914]

@The Octopus Lady, you forgot to mention that there are companies that want to mine the ocean floor for those nodules, and kill off any oxygen production.

[@starryeye6511]

This was totally cool. I'm really glad I found your channel today 😊

[@SixCubitMan]

"i don't know what dark matter is, because i don't study physics, because i'm not a nerd" bad news! the reason it's called Dark Matter is because physicists know it's there but don't what it is. tragically since you also know that it's there but don't know what it is, you're now an honorary physicist

[@shifty1927]

Cool to see credit:noaa.. i did the elevators at their Silver Spring MD location like 8 years ago.

[@blackperformer379]

I really love it when the author of this channel says “But I’m not a nerd” about non biologist. This feels like a local "no u" joke

[@roxyamused]

Angela Collier says "dark matter isn't a theory, it's a series of observations". It's not really a specific substance because astrophysicists, astronomers, etc don't know what the substance(s) could be. Dark energy is also a series of observations as to why the universe is expanding, "dark" just means they don't know what the energy or matter is, just that it's there. .

[@saltmydishbartender8432]

“whatever dark matter is” is actually an accurate definition of what dark matter is

[@MrSiwat]

Nodule bucket is such a great thing to say. It's the name of my new Drum and Bass song for sure.) Thanks for the great channel. Love the presentation style and the well researched script. Well done.

[@beastephenson7970]

as a fish keeper my immediate thought was, where do I find these rocks?????

[@slickrustleshot579]

Nodule Bucket is actually a pretty good band name

[@ashad6884]

Even when the day is bad, i can rely on the funny purple octopus to make me giggle and laugh.

[@bard2555]

OCTOPUS UPLOAD! :D

[@yeeturmcbeetur8197]

Ok. So things that DEFINITELY make O2 on earth: -plants -microbes Things that MIGHT make O2 on earth: -FRIGGIN ROCKS?!

[@ethribin4188]

The noduels likely dont act like barteries, but act as catalysts. The charge comes from the salt water and the current of salt water.

[@brandonwalker5011]

It's actually exactly like dark matter and is almost certainly named after it. In both names the preface "dark" just means unexplained or of unknown origins.

[@succinctsucculent9007]

I am here! I am excited!! Octopus Lady has gifted us with a video!!!

[@nonexistendworm3449]

I was always confused about the deep sea and oxygen as I never heard about any animal down there having an adaptation that allows them to survive without, yet photosynthesis doesn't happen there and I also never hear about oxygen "sinking" to the abyss, and the hydrothermal vents aren't everywhere down there so DOP has the be it I think.

[@Weirdoeevee]

I didn't even know deep sea mining was a thing. Thank you for the information. I will look into it more. Seems like that could create some nasty effects for the whole ocean.

[@MrSiwat]

PS - Frustule is a fine word too. Loved the Diatoms video.. Thanks.

[@killiemon]

Yaaayyyyyy octopus lady!!! I'm always excited to see a new video from you

[@王艺璇-w3k]

Thank you! This is so fancinating.

[@BierBart12]

Hearing you enjoy the word "nodules" and keep repeating it just kept getting funnier

[@jimbeam7636]

Omg thank you I've already binged all your videos

[@chrish2o270]

Great video, thank you! The fact you mentioned electrolysis makes me wonder if my high school education wasn't actually a waste of time after all.

[@JuanDi_SDK]

Korn, Metallica and Babymetal is an excellent combination of bands to annoy metal elitists, excellent choice

[@stefanschleps8758]

Stay strong Octopus Lady, help is on the way! Say no to Deep-Sea mining. Protect our Oceans from any further exploitation. There is no Planet-B.

[@catsnorkel]

0:50 physicists also don't know what dark matter is, that's why we call it dark matter. Pretty much the only thing we know about it is that it exists (probably) you can't see it (probably) and has mass (probably)

[@02052645]

I bet those Korn nodules are really valuable to deep sea mining companies.

[@lukefox5271]

''Made like a dark, fucked up version of Oxigen. Just a glimpse into my twisted reality''

[@empmachine]

NEBULARIAN !!! that's the word you were looking for IMHO. Nebula + librarian

[@evanbaumbarger1611]

Oh woah finally seeing one same day it came out. I'm glad I've seen all the other videos

[@Gaston-Melchiori]

I love how you manage to shove jokes all over the place, your videos are of the few i actually watch instead of just listening to them wile i cut my proxy magic cards XD

[@DomWood]

gosh I just thought wouldn't these nodules be quite readily supplied by a charge via the ocean because it's readily conductive and oceanic movements interact with the earth's magnetic field

[@artchap2861]

thank you for another great video!

[@c.nicolino]

My favorite day of the month is the Octopus Lady video day!🎉

[@agentdangercup9218]

Thanks octolady, love you!

[@ethribin4188]

"I dont know what dark matter is." So does everyone xD We dont know what dark matter is. We dont even know if it exists. All we know is that our calculations are off, and were missing some factor. We currently call that factor dark matter and dark energy.

[@ethribin4188]

Yeah, without sunlight, and oxygen agressivly binding to any metal (aka oxydating it) the only way you get an increase of oxygen on the sea floor is through rlectrolysis with salt water.

[@martinaruggirello2975]

How the hell do companies react to a mineral that produces oxygen on their own and instead of going "we could maybe live underwater!!" They go "let's do more cars!!" :/

[@veqv]

I have some very bad news, and I know you'll want to sit down for this. Octopus Lady...you.. you're kinda a big ol' nerd. but we love you for it.

[@puppetfan4634]

I don't know why I expected this video to be her playing the horror game set on a Scottish Oil Rig

[@dado8467]

YEYYYYYYYY NEW VIDEO LETSGOOOOOOOOOOOO Wait. You said that Nebula is the "Netflix for people who like train" Are you a fellow neurospicy by any chance??????

[@derickalexandrino1975]

Rocks that have energy potential? In the ocean?? In the dark??? Where have i heard this before...

[@remjoleea5560]

Nebulizer - sincerely, a person who had very many childhood pneumonias

[@samhale5413]

5:20 Heavy Metal Nodules is now the name my Korn-Metallica-BabyMetal fusion cover band.

[@wiktorszymczak4760]

So cool now we can finally get rid of these green suckers (trees). They took too much space anyway.

[@Terrorly_]

Yay! She posted!