A team of international scientists has found that oxygen is being produced in complete darkness approximately 4,000 meters below the ocean's surface.
An international team of scientists has discovered that oxygen is being produced by potato-shaped metallic nodules thousands of feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
A team of scientists led by Professor Andrew Sweetman at the U.K.'s Scottish Association for Marine Science found that oxygen is being produced in complete darkness approximately 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) below the ocean's surface.
"For aerobic life to begin on the planet, there had to be oxygen and our understanding has been that Earth's oxygen supply began with photosynthetic organisms," Sweetman said.
"But we now know that there is oxygen produced in the deep sea, where there is no light.
Persons:
Andrew Sweetman, Sweetman
Organizations:
Nature Geoscience, Scottish Association for Marine Science