Extent of impact of deep-sea nodule mining midwater plumes is influenced by sediment loading, turbulence and thresholds

Carlos Munoz-Royo; Thomas Peacock; Matthew Alford; Jerome Smith; Arnaud Le Boyer; Chinmay Kulkarni; Pierre Lermusiaux; Patrick Haley; C Mirabito; Dayang Wang; Eric Adams; Raphael Ouillon; Alexander Breugem; Boudewijn Decrop; Thijs Lanckreit; Rohit Supekar; Andrew Rzeznik; Amy Gartman; Se-Jong Ju

doi:10.1038/s43247-021-00213-8

Extent of impact of deep-sea nodule mining midwater plumes is influenced by sediment loading, turbulence and thresholds

Communications Earth & Environment

By: Carlos Munoz-Royo, Thomas Peacock, Matthew Alford, Jerome Smith, Arnaud Le Boyer, Chinmay Kulkarni, Pierre Lermusiaux, Patrick Haley, C Mirabito, Dayang Wang, Eric Adams, Raphael Ouillon, Alexander Breugem, Boudewijn Decrop, Thijs Lanckreit, Rohit Supekar, Andrew Rzeznik, Amy Gartman, and Se-Jong Ju

https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00213-8

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Abstract

Deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining research activity has substantially increased in recent years, but the expected level of environmental impact is still being established. One environmental concern is the discharge of a sediment plume into the midwater column. We performed a dedicated field study using sediment from the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone. The plume was monitored and tracked using both established and novel instrumentation, including acoustic and turbulence measurements. Our field studies reveal that modeling can reliably predict the properties of a midwater plume in the vicinity of the discharge and that sediment aggregation effects are not significant. The plume model is used to drive a numerical simulation of a commercial-scale operation in the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone. Key takeaways are that the scale of impact of the plume is notably influenced by the values of environmentally acceptable threshold levels, the quantity of discharged sediment, and the turbulent diffusivity in the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone.

Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	Extent of impact of deep-sea nodule mining midwater plumes is influenced by sediment loading, turbulence and thresholds
Series title	Communications Earth & Environment
DOI	10.1038/s43247-021-00213-8
Volume	2
Year Published	2021
Language	English
Publisher	Nature
Contributing office(s)	Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
Description	148, 16 p.
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page