Mining's new frontier: Pacific nations caught in the rush for deep-sea riches

Miners are pushing hard to extract metals from the ocean floor, but there is mounting concern about what it might do to the marine environmentTravel thousands of metres below the surface of the ocean, and you reach the seabed. Pitch black and quiet, it is largely unexplored, untouched, unknown.What is known is extraordinary. The landscape at the bottom of the sea is as varied as the earth surface: 4,000m (13,000ft) down, abyssal plains stretch for miles like deserts; there are trenches large enough to swallow the Earth's largest mountains; venting chimneys rise in towers like underwater cities; seamounts climb thousands of metres. Hot thermal vents - believed by some to be the places where all life on Earth started - gush highly acidic water at temperatures of up to 400C, drawing in an array of creatures. Continue reading...