#ccz

2/ Led by researchers from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, the expedition team sailed out into the central Pacific Ocean to study a remote abyssal region called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ). The CCZ is a massive swath of the Pacific Ocean stretching between Hawaii and Mexico at depths of 4,000 to 5,500 meters (13,000 to 18,000 feet). On its pitch-black floor lie trillions of potato-sized rocks called polymetallic nodules. #CCZ

4/ The Goal of the SMARTEX MissionScientists estimate that more than 90% of the species living in the CCZ are completely unknown to science. The SMARTEX team was tasked with mapping this unknown biodiversity and assessing how mining would impact it before full-scale commercial extraction begins. Using advanced Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs)—like the underwater robot Isis—the team descended 5 kilometers down to conduct surveys: #SMARTEX#CCZ#biodiversity

5/ Cataloging Life: Documenting the weird and delicate fauna (like glass sponges that can live for thousands of years, sea anemones, and deep-sea sea pigs like Amperima, nicknamed "Barbie Pig") before industrial activity disturbs them. Measuring Plume Impacts: Studying how underwater mining vehicles kick up heavy plumes of sediment that drift over hundreds of miles, potentially choking soft-bodied filter feeders. #SMARTEX#CCZ#biodiversity

6/ Assessing Recovery: Visiting old, experimental test-mining sites from decades past to see if life has managed to recover (spoiler: deep-sea ecosystems recover extraordinarily slowly, taking centuries or millennia). #SMARTEX#CCZ#DeepSeaMining