Dark oxygen production refers to the generation of molecular oxygen (O 2) through processes that do not involve light-dependent oxygenic photosynthesis.

Jul 22, 2024 · Scientists have discovered “dark oxygen” being produced in the deep ocean, apparently by lumps of metal on the seafloor. About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean.

Jul 24, 2024 · Minerals that produce oxygen in the darkness of the seafloor could possibly change scientists’ view of how life began on planet Earth.

Jan 17, 2025 · Uncovering dark oxygen revealed just how little is known about the deep ocean, and the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, or CCZ, in particular.

Jul 23, 2024 · New research challenges a long-held assumption about oxygen in the deep sea, with scientists finding oxygen produced without photosynthesis in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

Jul 22, 2024 · Metal deposited over millions of years forms these nodules, which can somehow generate oxygen. The dark seabed of the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) is …

Jul 26, 2024 · Yet, the life-supporting gas is abundant in this darkness-cloaked region, thanks to an unlikely oxygen factory: potato-sized, “battery rocks” on the seafloor.

Jan 26, 2025 · Certain metallic rocks seem to be making oxygen in the dark, without light or sunshine, at the bottom of the ocean.

Nov 4, 2024 · They found that this "dark" oxygen production at the seafloor seems to only happen in the presence of mineral concentrates called polymetallic nodules and deposits of metals called metalliferous sediments.

Jul 24, 2024 · It has long been understood that photosynthesis creates oxygen, but researchers believe they've found oxygen being created in parts of the ocean with no light.