A game-changing discovery has just emerged from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Scientists have uncovered a mysterious form of oxygen...dubbed “dark oxygen”...lurking 4,000 meters below the surface in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a remote seafloor region rich in metals and mystery

Here’s the twist: this oxygen wasn’t made by sunlight. That means no photosynthesis, no plants, no algae—just pure, sunless oxygen born in the darkness. How? Through strange rock formations called polymetallic nodules. These metal-rich nodules, loaded with nickel and cobalt, behave like tiny natural batteries, producing a voltage of around 0.95 volts—enough to split seawater molecules and release oxygen and hydrogen

This discovery completely shakes up our current understanding of how oxygen, and possibly even life itself, may have formed on early Earth. It suggests there may have been oxygenated environments long before sunlight reached them—possibly giving rise to aerobic life in the planet’s deepest, darkest corners

But it’s not all good news. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone is also a hotspot for deep-sea mining, with companies eyeing its mineral wealth. If mining disturbs these natural geobatteries, we could be wiping out secrets that tell the story of Earth’s earliest life—before we even get to understand them

Science is still catching up, but one thing is clear: the ocean’s dark corners are glowing with new truths

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