Cutting edge technology to explore resources of the sea floor Friday, 01 July 2016

The sea-floor may be the world’s next treasure box of resources like copper, zinc, gold and rare-earth elements, but can we successfully detect and extract these resources? A research cruise led by the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) intends to investigate the challenges around sea-floor mineral deposit exploration.

On 30 June 2016, the RRS James Cook will leave Southampton for the Mid-Atlantic ridge, where it will test new technologies that can detect and assess mineral deposits. It will primarily focus on hydrothermal vents, which form rich deposits of rich minerals. In particular, to avoid disturbing the rich and exotic ecosystems that exist around active hydrothermal vents, the RRS James Cook will study only extinct vents.

According to the expedition leader, Dr Bramley Murton the challenges posed by deep sea exploration are similar in scale to space exploration.

“The deep-seafloor we will be exploring during our expedition is an extreme environment of intense-pressure and eternal darkness hiding a rugged landscape akin to a combination of the grand-canyon and monument valley 3.5 kilometres beneath the waves,” Dr Murton explained.

Features of this landscape include extinct volcanoes, twenty-metre high cliffs, and towering chimney structures formed by the now-inactive hydrothermal vents.

Technology will play a big role in enabling the researchers to successfully explore such an environment. New technology will be used to navigate underwater instruments through the landscape. The British Geological Survey’s robotic drilling rig will bore holes deep-into the deposits to extract samples of the minerals and take readings of the interior conditions.

This robotic drill has been fitted with an adaptation to enable it to drill through the hard deposits. Its samples will help scientists determine if the minerals deposited by hydrothermal vents are able to withstand the degrading effects of the seafloor environment long after they have become extinct.

The researchers will also test new systems for detecting mineral deposits. Two such systems, developed by The University of Southampton alongside German partners from GEOMAR, work in a similar manner to a CT scanner, by transmitting an electric field through the sea floor, then looking for distortions in said field, which would indicate the presence of buried mineral deposits.

Also on board the mission is a robotic underwater vehicle, HyBis, which has a special colour spectrometer designed by researchers at The University of Trondheim to study the composition of the sea bed.

While the scientists will utilise the expedition to test the different technologies, they will also investigate how they can utilise technology to effectively map the distribution of extinct seafloor hydrothermal systems.

Don't forget to register for the Australian Engineering Conference 2016 in Brisbane on November 23-25.