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<b></b><br>
<big><big><b>Precious Metals from Deep-Sea Vents<br>
</b></big></big><br>
<b>5th Elisabeth and Henry Morss Jr. Colloquium on<br>
<big>Deep-sea mining: A reality for science and society in the 21st
century</big></b><br>
<b></b><big><b><big></big><br>
</b></big>Scientists, policymakers, environmentalists, and industry
representatives will gather this Thursday at the Woods Hole
Oceanographic
Institution (WHOI) to discuss the issue of mining precious metals from
the seafloor. <b>A public colloquium, which will feature keynote
addresses
from leading voices on the subject and a panel discussion, will be held
on Thursday, April 2, from 2 to 5 p.m. in WHOI’s Redfield Auditorium,
Woods Hole, MA</b>. <b>The event, the 5th Elisabeth and Henry Morss
Jr.
Colloquium, is free and open to the public and will also be broadcast
in real time on the Web.<br>
</b><br>
The Morss Colloquium will broadcast in real time on the Web at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.whoi.edu/workshops/deepseamining">http://www.whoi.edu/workshops/deepseamining</a>.<br>
<br>
Recent proposals for seafloor mining have centered on massive sulfide
deposits—rich in copper, gold, silver, and zinc—that are found at
deep-sea hydrothermal vent systems.<br>
<br>
Vent systems are part of the planet’s plumbing system and form in
places where there is volcanic activity, such as along Mid-Ocean
Ridges. Water seeps into cracked seafloor and is heated by hot, and
sometimes molten rock deep in the ocean crust. The hot fluid becomes
buoyant, rises rapidly back to the seafloor, and gushes out of the vent
openings at temperatures as high as 400°C. This hydrothermal fluid
carries with it dissolved metals and other chemicals from deep beneath
the ocean floor, but, at just below the seabed, these metals can
precipitate to form seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits.<br>
<br>
“Scientists are still in the early stages of studying these SMS
deposits, but the active vent sites that generate them can often also
play host to species and ecosystems that were previously unknown to
science,” said Maurice Tivey, a senior scientist at WHOI. “The new
frontier of deep-sea exploration and mining raises questions about the
sustainable use of these resources and potential environmental impacts.
This colloquium represents an invaluable—and extremely
timely—opportunity to discuss all of the various scientific, political,
legal, and economic implications of mining with the people most
knowledgeable about it.”<br>
<br>
Working with the Census of Marine Life’s ChEss (Chemosynthetic
Ecosystems) project, InterRidge, Ridge 2000, and the Deep Ocean
Exploration Institute at WHOI, Tivey and colleagues have organized a
scientific workshop that has attracted more than 100 participants from
20 countries to explore the subject. During the workshop, which will be
held the day before the public event, scientists and students of all
disciplines will exchange ideas and research results arising from
investigations of hydrothermal vent systems and the seafloor deposits
that form around them.<br>
<br>
“The enthusiastic response of the international community to this
meeting highlights sea floor mining as an issue of important global
implications,” said Jian Lin, a WHOI geophysicist and InterRidge Chair.<br>
<br>
The public colloquium will provide a summary of the previous day’s
workshop.<br>
<br>
Commercial sea floor mining is already being planned offshore Papua New
Guinea, and in May, the International Seabed Authority, which
implements the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, will finalize its
rules opening up the high seas to these activities. The U.S. currently
has not ratified the Law of the Sea convention.<br>
<br>
Among the speakers at this week's colloquium is Nii Allotey Odunton,
the Secretary-General for the International Seabed Authority, which
will oversee the regulation of the world’s seafloor resources. Also
speaking are Caitlyn Antrim, the executive director for the Rule of Law
Committee for the Oceans, Rod Eggert, the division director for
economics and business at the Colorado School of Mines, and Maurice
Tivey, a geologist at WHOI who studies these unique deep sea
environments. They will be joined by Samantha Smith, environmental
manager of Nautilus Minerals Inc., Sabine Christiansen of the World
Wildlife Fund, and Chris German, a WHOI geochemist who is co-chair of
ChEss and InterRidge, for a panel discussion and Q&A with the
audience.<br>
<br>
“The issue of deep-sea mining of SMS is of global importance, connected
to the global economy, society, and the conservation of unique marine
life,” said German. “Before these unique environments are altered by
industrial processes, we scientists hope to gain and exchange as much
information as we can about the formation, preservation, and
distribution of SMS deposits to determine the gaps in our scientific
knowledge.”<br>
<br>
<b>CONTACT</b>: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution <br>
Media Relations Office<br>
508-289-3340<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:media@whoi.edu">media@whoi.edu</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<i>The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a private, independent
organization in Falmouth, Mass., dedicated to marine research,
engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930 on a
recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary
mission is to understand the oceans and their interaction with the
Earth as a whole, and to communicate a basic understanding of the
oceans’ role in the changing global environment.</i>
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