News Oceans

Deep-sea mining may damage underwater ecosystems for decades

Microbes disturbed by a seafloor experiment 26 years ago still haven’t recovered

Sediment sample collection near Peru

Sediment samples, collected by a remotely operated vehicle off the coast of Peru (shown), reveal that seafloor microbe communities still haven’t recovered from an experiment 26 years ago that mimicked deep-sea mining.

GEOMAR, ROV Kiel 6000

By Carolyn Gramling

- More than 2 years ago

Microbe communities living in the seafloor off Peru haven’t bounced back from a deep-sea mining experiment 26 years ago.