The demand for metals used in the production of electronic devices, such as cellular phones and laptop computers, has pushed China to the deep sea. Searching for copper, nickel, cobalt, silver and gold, the Chinese want to explore inactive hydrothermal vents at a depth of over 5,000 feet in international waters. Environmentalists fear marine pollution.
Hydrothermal vents are geysers, like Old Faithful, existing on the ocean floor. The University of Delaware explains:
How do hydrothermal vents form? In some areas along the Mid-Ocean Ridge, the huge plates that form the Earth’s crust are moving apart, causing deep cracks in the ocean floor. Seawater seeps into these openings and is heated by the molten rock, or magma, beneath the crust. As the water heats up, it rises…
Chimneys top some vents. These smokestacks are formed from dissolved metals that precipitate out (form into particles) when the super-hot vent water meets the surrounding seawater, which is only a few degrees above freezing.
China has filed the first application to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for deep-sea mining in the Indian