Mining firms say that metals found there, such as copper, nickel, aluminium, lithium, cobalt and manganese, are needed to make batteries, smartphones and solar panels. They’re just incredible,” says Sigwart.ĭeep-sea mining involves retrieving mineral deposits from the area of the ocean below 200 metres down to the sea bed, which is the largest and least explored environment on Earth, occupying 65% of the planet’s surface. “These smoking chimneys loom up at you, out of the blackness. The vents are where mineral-rich hot water, between 300C and 400C (572-752F), bursts out from below the Earth’s crust, swirling into the cold seawater like black smoke.
While much of the ocean floor looks like a ghost town to the naked eye, the concentrated patches of life around hydrothermal vents are as densely, if not as diversely, populated as coral reefs. When you turn off the lights of the submersible you can see all of the bioluminescence of everything that’s alive in the water all around you – big and small. “As you go down the light fades out rapidly. With not even a loo on board, it’s definitely on the bijou side for an eight-hour working day, but for Sigwart, director of the marine laboratory at Queen’s University, Belfast, the experience is worth it. “So you’re hunched up together with the two pilots who are driving it and manipulating it,” she says. In lieu of seats, there’s a padded floor. The vessel is equipped with robotic arms, probes and cameras – like a manned, underwater version of the Mars rover.
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