Scientists Discover Non‑Photosynthetic “Dark Oxygen” Produced on Ocean Floor.mp4

Amaze Lab

Plants create oxygen through photosynthesis, that’s biology 101. However, scientists now say they have discovered another source of the life sustaining element and it could reshape their theories about how life began on Earth in the first place.

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00:00Plants create oxygen through photosynthesis. That's biology 101. However, scientists now say

00:09they have discovered another source of the life-sustaining element, and it could reshape

00:13our theories about how life began on Earth in the first place. The discovery was made in the

00:18Pacific Ocean at depths of more than 13,000 feet. At those depths, oxygen is normally only consumed,

00:25not created, but the research team noticed that the O2 levels continued to increase as the depths

00:30became greater. The researchers say they initially thought the instruments were malfunctioning,

00:34but over 10 years the readings remained the same, eventually finding that these were the source of

00:39the oxygen, black rocks that cover massive swathes of the ocean floor. They are made of rare earth

00:44metals, the same ones often utilized in batteries, and the researchers found that's probably how

00:50they are producing oxygen. They discovered that when these rocks were grouped together,

00:54they could produce currents upwards of 1.5 volts, or enough of a current to split oxygen from water

01:00through the process of electrolysis. With the researchers writing, that I think we therefore

01:04need to revisit questions like, where could aerobic life have begun?

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