Scientific studies show substantial reductions in deep-sea biodiversity following mining tests, with impacts potentially lasting decades. Governments are split between environmental caution and the ...

As demand for critical minerals surges around the world, countries are debating whether to mine the untapped deep-sea reserves of cobalt, copper and manganese, miles below the surface. But a growing ...

A dome-fronted submersible sinks beneath the waves off Indonesia, heading down nearly 1,000 meters in search of new species, plastic-eating microbes and compounds that could one day make medicines.

Japanese scientists confirm a new marine coral species, Corallizoanthus aureus, that glows in the dark and inhabits deep caves in the ocean.

The deep sea, a realm of perpetual darkness, crushing pressure, and cold temperatures, is home to some of the most unusual and mysterious creatures on Earth. Recent discoveries have unveiled a host of ...

Beds of Bathymodiolus mussels provide important habitat for other deep-sea critters, including sea stars, scaleworms and limpets. NOAA Ocean Exploration. The deep sea is the large ...

The deep sea is cold, dark and under immense pressure. Yet life has found a way to prevail there, in the form of some of Earth’s strangest creatures. Since deep-sea critters have adapted to near ...

Scientists have discovered that deep-sea mining plumes can strip vital nutrition from the ocean’s twilight zone, replacing natural food with nutrient-poor sediment. The resulting “junk food” effect ...

Researchers have uncovered surprising evidence that the deep ocean’s carbon-fixing engine works very differently than long assumed. While ammonia-oxidizing archaea were thought to dominate carbon ...