• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Silver Could Be Getting Dumped In Seabed Of South China Sea By Climate Change

September 10, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Silver has been building up in certain parts of the coastal seabed since the 19th century – and researchers believe its mounting abundance is due to a blend of furious monsoons, microscopic life, and climate change.

Advertisement

In a new study, scientists from the Hefei University of Technology and Guangdong Ocean University in China studied a sediment core spanning the last 3,200 years of geological history, retrieved from the seafloor off the coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea at a depth of 1,878 meters (6,161 feet).

This part of the sea is an upwelling area where wind-displaced surface waters are constantly restocked with cold, nutrient-rich water from the deep sea. As dynamic parts of the sea, upwellings are very sensitive to environmental changes and can provide an important insight into wider global shifts.

They found that levels of silver buried in the seabed have drastically shot up since 1850, a period that neatly coincides with the Industrial Revolution and the rise of atmospheric CO2 levels. As such, the researchers argue that the increase in silver in the seabed might be the result of human-induced global warming.

Natural processes, like rain and wind, can weather silver-bearing rocks and force them to disperse the metal into the environment. However, the majority of silver that enters the environment is from industrial activity and manufacturing, most notably in the making of some photography equipment.

Although increased industrial pollution might play a role in the latest discovery, the researchers believe that climate change is the prime factor.

Advertisement

They posit that the East Asian Summer Monsoon has consistently increased in intensity along with warming temperatures. With heavier rain and stronger wind, there’s more upwelling to bring nutrients to the sea surface and support marine productivity, the rate at which marine organisms (primarily microscopic phytoplankton) produce organic matter through photosynthesis.

These flourishing marine organisms take up the silver, as well as other trace metals, before perishing and becoming entombed in sea sediment, burying the silver with them.

While the study focused on a small part of the Sea China Sea, the findings might apply to other upwelling areas found along many parts of the world’s major coasts.

It remains to be seen whether the increasing quantities of silver and other valuable minerals are enough to spark further interest in mining the seafloor, although there is plenty of intrigue already. The seabed is loaded with copper, silver, lead, gold, and other raw metals needed to make batteries, like cobalt, copper, manganese, and nickel. Corporations are increasingly keen to get their hands on this loot, but it could have a disastrous impact on the marine environment.

Advertisement

The study is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Japan PM Suga arranging U.S. visit for meeting with Biden – TV Asahi
  2. Fermented Foods And Fibre May Lower Stress Levels – New Study
  3. Global North Owes $170 Trillion To The World For Its Greenhouse Emissions
  4. “Apex” The Stegosaurus Fossil Shatters World Record Fetching $44.6 Million At Auction

Source Link: Silver Could Be Getting Dumped In Seabed Of South China Sea By Climate Change

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • The Universe’s “Red Sky Paradox” Just Got Darker: Most Stars Might Never Host Observers
  • Uranus And Neptune May Not Be “Ice Giants” But The Solar System’s First “Rocky Giants”
  • COVID-19 Can Alter Sperm And Affect Brain Development In Offspring, Causing Anxious Behavior
  • Why Do Spiders’ Legs Curl Up Like That When They’re Dead?
  • “Dead Men’s Fingers” Might Just Be The Strangest Fruit On The Planet
  • The South Atlantic’s Giant Weak Spot In The Earth’s Magnetic Field Is Growing
  • Nearly Half A Century After Being Lost, “Zombie Satellite” LES-1 Began Sending Signals To Earth
  • Extinct In the Wild, An Incredibly Rare Spix’s Macaw Chick Hatches In New Hope For Species
  • HUNTR/X Or Giant Squid? Following Alien Claims, We Asked Scientists What They Would Like Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS To Be
  • Flat-Earthers Proved Wrong Using A Security Camera And A Garage
  • Earth Breaches Its First Climate Tipping Point: We’re Moving Into A World Without Coral Reefs
  • Cheese Caves, A Proposal, And Chance: How Scientists Ended Up Watching Fungi Evolve In Real Time
  • Lab-Grown 3D Embryo Models Make Their Own Blood In Regenerative Medicine Breakthrough
  • Humans’ Hidden “Sixth Sense” To Be Mapped Following $14.2 Million Prize – What Is Interoception?
  • Purple Earth Hypothesis: Our Planet Was Not Blue And Green Over 2.4 Billion Years Ago
  • Hippos Hung Around In Europe 80,000 Years Later Than We Thought
  • Officially Gone: Slender-Billed Curlew, Once-Widespread Migratory Bird, Declared Extinct By IUCN
  • Watch: Rare Footage Captures Freaky Faceless Cusk Eels Lurking On The Deep-Sea Floor
  • Watch This Funky Sea Pig Dancing Its Way Through The Deep Sea, Over 2,300 Meters Below The Surface
  • NASA Lets YouTuber Steve Mould Test His “Weird Chain Theory” In Space
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version