What Do Diamond inclusions Tell Us About the Deep Earth?

Recommendable!

Inside the Race to Mine $92 Billion Worth of Deep Sea Minerals

Very recommendable! The environmental concerns are as usual overblown!

Metallic minerals on the ocean floor about 4 km deep split water to generate oxygen in complete darkness

Amazing stuff! This discovery may impact future deep sea mining!

"The surprising discovery challenges long-held assumptions that only photosynthetic organisms, such as plants and algae, generate Earth's oxygen. But the new finding shows there might be another way. It appears oxygen also can be produced at the seafloor—where no light can penetrate—to support the oxygen-breathing (aerobic) sea life living in complete darkness. ...
“Several large-scale mining companies now aim to extract these precious elements from the seafloor at depths of 10,000 to 20,000 feet below the surface. We need to rethink how to mine these materials, so that we do not deplete the oxygen source for deep-sea life.” ...

To investigate this hypothesis, ... shipped several pounds of the polymetallic nodules collected from the ocean floor to ... laboratory ...

Just 1.5 volts — the same voltage as a typical AA battery — is enough to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. Amazingly, the team recorded voltages of up to 0.95 volts on the surface of single nodules. And when multiple nodules clustered together, the voltage can be much more significant, just like when batteries are connected in a series. ..."

From the abstract:

"Deep-seafloor organisms consume oxygen, which can be measured by in situ benthic chamber experiments. Here we report such experiments at the polymetallic nodule-covered abyssal seafloor in the Pacific Ocean in which oxygen increased over two days to more than three times the background concentration, which from ex situ incubations we attribute to the polymetallic nodules. Given high voltage potentials (up to 0.95 V) on nodule surfaces, we hypothesize that seawater electrolysis may contribute to this dark oxygen production."

Metallic minerals on the deep-ocean floor split water to generate 'dark oxygen,' new study finds An international team of researchers, including a Northwestern University chemist, has discovered that metallic minerals on the deep-ocean floor produce oxygen—[4.000 m) below the surface.

Deep-ocean floor produces its own ‘dark oxygen’ (original news release) New study finds metallic minerals act as geobatteries to split water

Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor (open access)

How Miners Find, Cut, And Transport The Most Expensive Amethysts In The World

Recommendable!

Strange new phosphate compound discovered in "fossilized lightning"

Amazing stuff, but it might be an exotic discovery! Struck by lightening!

"... This particular form of crystalline phosphorus has never been seen on Earth, and could belong to a new mineral group. ...
Fulgurites can be a goldmine for intriguing minerals, thanks to the strange chemical reactions that occur as a result of the extreme energy of a lightning strike. ..."

"... In a recent study ... examines how high-energy events, such as lightning, can cause unique chemical reactions, and in this instance, result in a new material  – one that is transitional between space minerals and minerals found on Earth. ..."

From the abstract:

"Phosphate minerals such as those in the apatite group tend to be the dominant forms of phosphorus in minerals on the Earth’s surface. Phosphate can be reduced to phosphides during high-energy events, such as lightning and impacts. Here we show that, in addition to formation of metal phosphides, a new compound was formed by lightning in a fulgurite from New Port Richey, Florida, USA. A calcium phosphite material, ideally CaHPO3, was found in spherules mainly consisting of iron silicides that formed by lightning-induced fusion of sand around a tree root. This phosphite material bears a phosphorus oxidation state intermediate of that of phosphides and phosphates in a geologic sample and implicates phosphites as being potentially relevant to other high-energy events where phosphorus may partially change its redox state, and material similar to this phosphite may also be the source of phosphite that makes up part of the phosphorus biogeochemical cycle."

Strange new material discovered in "fossilized lightning"

USF geoscientist discovers new phosphorus material after New Port Richey lightning strike

Routes to reduction of phosphate by high-energy events (open access)

Fig. 1: The New Port Richey fulgurite images and microscopy