'A no-brainer': Mining companies to relinquish thousands of claims in Yukon's Peel watershed

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Seven companies fold on roughly 5,000 claims in protected areas

Julien Gignac · CBC News · Posted: Feb 01, 2022 

Near the Wind River, in Yukon's Peel watershed region. The Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan, signed in 2019, offers degrees of protection to most of the 67,431-square-kilometre region. Several mining companies have now relinquished claims in the area. (Ellen Woodley)

Thousands of mineral claims in Yukon's Peel watershed have been relinquished by mining companies.

The Yukon government has struck agreements with seven companies, which, in turn, have forgone 5,031 claims — the majority of outstanding pre-existing claims located in protected areas.

The agreements stem from the Peel land use plan. Signed in 2019, the plan offers degrees of protection to most of the 67,431-square-kilometre region. The agreement, in effect, divides the region into management blocks, wherein the environment has received either permanent protection or protection that's subject to review every 10 years (while industrial development is allowed in 17 per cent of the region, First Nations and the territorial government must reach a consensus before that work can happen).

The companies that have agreed to relinquish claims vary in size. Newmont, the multinational corporation behind the Coffee Gold project in the Dawson area, stepped away from 1,835 claims. Smaller companies ATAC Resources and Generic Gold say they have relinquished 327 and 1,332 claims, respectively.

Then there's prospector Bernard Kreft. He told CBC News he relinquished 142 copper, gold and cobalt claims located northeast of Dawson. 

"It was a valuable asset in my business," he said. "But, at the end of the day, this is about respect for the [First] Nations. They're good people. 

"To me, this was a no-brainer."

The Peel River watershed covers a large portion of northern Yukon. (CBC)

The three remaining companies haven't agreed to be identified yet, said Jesse Devost, a spokesperson with Yukon's Department of Energy, Mines and Resources. It's unclear how many claims those companies have agreed to relinquish.

Asked whether the agreements include financial compensation, Devost said companies that have removed claims from the Peel will instead earn a credit for the amount of legislated work or fees that would otherwise be required to happen on an annual basis. This, he added, will be applied to other claims held by the companies elsewhere in the territory.

First Nations and environmental organizations applaud the move

Four First Nations have vested interests in the Peel watershed. That includes the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in in Dawson City. 

Chief Roberta Joseph says the removal of claims in the region is an important step toward respecting land claim agreements, which laid the groundwork for land use planning at large. 

"We really appreciate that the companies are demonstrating great respect for all of the work and efforts that went into the Peel land use plan," Joseph said. "They're showing a commitment to being environmentally responsible.

"We collaborated with other First Nations to be able to protect this region for future generations because there's nothing like this in the territory," Joseph added.

"One of our oldest elders says that [those] areas are our hospitals, our education, where our people go to reinvigorate, spiritually."

Chris Rider, the executive director of the Yukon chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, says the removal of the claims suggests that others elsewhere could also be relinquished. 

"It sets up the next phases of protection for the Peel watershed," he said. "What it does is help remove some of the barriers that exist."

There are more landlocked claims — thousands more

There are more claims in protected areas that have not yet been relinquished — roughly 2,270. John Streicker, the minister of the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, said removing claims is a process toward fully implementing the Peel plan. 

• No mining in wetlands, says conservation group as feedback ends for Yukon's draft wetland policy

• Almost a third of the Yukon's first shipment of COVID-19 rapid tests given to mines

"We will continue to work with companies and work in this constructive fashion to get what I hope are more agreements to relinquish more outstanding claims," he said.

"This isn't the end of that work."

With files from Dave White

Edmonton public board hopes to access up to $6M to buy HEPA-filters for schools

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Division also in process of installing 

MERV-13 filters

CBC News · Posted: Feb 01, 2022 

Trustees for Edmonton Public Schools want to buy HEPA filters for all classrooms to help with air filtration. (Codie McLachlan)

Edmonton's public school board wants the province to release $6 million from the division's surplus funds to pay for HEPA filters for its schools. 

Trustees unanimously approved a plan Monday to request access to funds so that it can put the stand-alone filters in every classroom, music room, library, art and drama rooms in all of the division's 213 schools.

The move comes as the division has been under pressure from parents to act to upgrade air filtration systems.

"In the absence of the provincial government not showing some leadership around some guidelines, some clear guidelines, it's on us as a division," board chair Trisha Estabrooks said while discussing the plan. "And so I'm pleased to see our division take this step in this direction."

Estabrooks said she hopes Education Minister Adrianna LaGrange responds to their request for funds quickly. 

Division staff have already begun installing MERV-13 filters wherever possible in all schools. The MERV-13 level of filtration is recommended by the  American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers to siphon out the majority of tiny particles. 

Trustees were told Monday that while enough have been ordered for all schools, supply issues means there may be a delay in that work being finished. 

Superintendent Darrel Robertson also addressed questions about the possibility of using Corsi-Rosenthal boxes in classrooms in the meantime. 

The homemade air purifiers can be constructed by anyone with furnace filters and a box fan. Robinson said the experts the division consulted didn't think it was a good solution for commercial use, and added that having DIY air filtration systems brought into schools would violate the division's collective agreement with its maintenance staff. 

The Uncomfortable Truth About Green Hydrogen

By Irina Slav - Feb 01, 2022, 

• Predictions that green hydrogen would become the cheapest form of hydrogen by 2030 seem increasingly unlikely in the face of soaring costs.
• The rising cost of commodities and growing demand for energy have sent the price of both renewable energy and electrolyzers higher.
• The assumption that the cost of green hydrogen would fall was based on market realities that no longer exist and the long-term impact of that could be devastating for the sector.

Last year, BloombergNEF predicted that by 2030, green hydrogen would become cheaper than all other “colors” of hydrogen. The analytical firm did not supply specific reasons for its forecast, only saying that the current situation in which even blue hydrogen—produced from natural gas—with carbon capture is cheaper than green hydrogen should reverse over the next eight years.  This was one of the forecasts that did not age well during the pandemic, what with all the supply chain problems and pent-up demand release that resulted in shortages and higher prices across commodities. The BloombergNEF forecast, like most about the future of low-carbon energy, was based on the assumption that the cost of raw materials for wind and solar will only have one way to go, and that would be down. 

In reality, the opposite has been the case.

“The global commodities crunch has created new challenges for the clean energy sector, raising input costs for key technologies like solar modules, wind turbines and battery packs,” said BloombergNEF’s head of analysis, Albert Cheung, in comments on a newer report on investments in the energy transition.

According to the firm, these rose by an impressive 27 percent last year. That’s despite the pandemic and despite the raw material inflation, which, Cheung noted, was “an encouraging sign that investors, governments and businesses are more committed than ever to the low-carbon transition, and see it as part of the solution for the current turmoil in energy markets.” Unfortunately, this may yet change.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month how the inflation that worried the White House and the Fed was also creating headaches for the wind and solar industries. Raw materials for panels and turbines were on the rise, the report noted, reversing the steady downward curve of costs that these industries and their allies in national governments and non-governmental organizations flagged as the guarantee of their long-term success.

“Over the past 10 years there have been three certainties in life: death, taxes and lower prices for solar panels,” Nick Parsons, head of research at Swiss investment firm ThomasLloyd Group, told the WSJ. “It’s not so evident that is the case today.”

It is certainly not the case today, and it might yet get even worse as basically all metals and minerals are either already in deficit or about to swing into deficit for various reasons ranging from long-term processes such as resource depletion and lack of investment in new production to high energy prices that are shutting down aluminum smelter after aluminum smelter.

Related: Soaring Energy Prices Fuel Mayhem For The Metals Industry

Now, the first thing one needs to produce green hydrogen is water to break it down into its constituent elements. The second thing one needs is either a solar farm or a wind park to generate the electricity necessary for this breakdown process. Powering hydrolysis with hydropower is also a low-carbon option, but it has not been garnering so much attention in green hydrogen discussions as wind and solar.

The electrolysis process is an expensive one. Its chance to become competitive with fossil fuel-derived hydrogen was to either see the costs of wind and solar power fall further—and substantially—or alternatively see the cost of fossil fuel hydrogen production rise. 

Bets appear to have been on the first of these options, and they seem to have been wrong. Wind and solar costs are going up, and this means that the cost of producing green hydrogen is also going up instead of down. This cost is the main component in the cost make-up of green hydrogen, as the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies noted in a recent report on the issue.

But there is also another component: the cost of the electrolyzer itself. Unfortunately, the machines are, so to speak, metal-intensive, especially the preferred proton exchange membrane ones, which are best suited to the intermittent nature of solar and wind power because they use precious metals as catalysts.

The green hydrogen conundrum is a big and uncomfortable one. The energy transition lobby has argued that the transition would be impossible without hydrogen, and indeed, the element holds a lot of promise as an energy carrier. But this promise is, for now, mostly theoretical and, given the cost situation, it’s likely to remain theoretical for the observable future.

Would Earth survive a devastating asteroid impact?

Dinosaurs didn’t know physics or have a planetary defense program. But we do

By Gitanjali Poonia@gitanjalipoonia Jan 31, 2022,

Share this storyShare this on Facebook (opeAll sharing o

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, 

spacecraft onboard, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force 

Base in California. NASA launched the spacecraft on the DART mission to smash into an asteroid and test 

whether it would be possible to knock a speeding space rock off course if one were to threaten Earth.

 NASA, Associated Press

The Netflix movie “Don’t Look Up” provided a nightmare scenario where a comet, 5 kilometers wide, collides with the Earth, wiping out everything that lives and breathes — including humans.

This scenario has already happened 65 million years ago when an asteroid, 10 kilometers wide, crashed into the Earth and sparked a global winter that killed the dinosaurs.

But do we have the resources and technology to avert such a disaster? A new paper looked into the technical aspects.

• “We show that humanity has crossed a technological threshold to prevent us from ‘going the way of the dinosaurs.’” wrote Philip Lubin and Alex Cohen, researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara, in a recent study. “We show that mitigation is conceivable using existing technology, even with the short time scale of six months warning.”
• They added that dinosaurs “never took a physics class and failed to fund planetary defense.”

According to SciTechDaily, the researchers also concluded that the most effective method of pulverizing is by using a small nuclear explosive. NASA’s Space Launch System or SpaceX’s Starship is technologically sufficient enough to mitigate the existential threat and change the object’s velocity.

Advancements in monitoring also create a sense of safety.

• “Two decades ago, only a handful of the potential species-ending kilometer-sized asteroids had been cataloged and their orbits through the solar system carefully measured,” said Brad Gibson, director of the E A Milne Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Hull in the U.K., per The National News.
• “As of today, essentially 100 percent of these extreme asteroids (roughly 1,000 of them) are now covered, and we are in no danger from any of these, at least for several centuries,” he said.
• But there are undiscovered objects still out there, best observed from the Southern hemisphere.
• “There are too many blind spots. We need dedicated space-based observatories which can provide us with a 360-degree view of objects potentially targeting the earth,” said Dimitra Atri, a research scientist at the NYU Abu Dhabi Centre for Space Science.

Hunting by humans can change virus evolution, transmission in pumas

by Colorado State University

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Pumas are famously solitary creatures. They typically avoid contact with humans, which makes them a challenge to observe. As a result, very little is known about their movements and even less about how diseases move through puma populations.

A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution—led by the University of Minnesota with Colorado State University and Colorado Parks and Wildlife researchers—offers rare insight into the pathway of a common virus in two geographic areas with different wildlife management strategies. The research has implications for the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, which potentially emerged following wildlife-to-human transmission.

The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, traces the transmission of feline immunodeficiency virus in these wild cats using DNA to identify patterns of evolution across puma viral genomes. CSU's lead researcher, Dr. Sue VandeWoude, a veterinary scientist, has specialized in studying conditions affecting cats, big and small, including feline immunodeficiency virus or FIV, which can leave animals vulnerable to other infections.

VandeWoude said that while the study does not specifically relate to SARS CoV-2, it does analyze fundamental principles of disease dynamics in wildlife.

"SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to infect domestic and nondomestic felids or members of the cat family, as well as white-tailed deer in the wild," said VandeWoude, a Colorado State University Distinguished Professor and director of the One Health Institute at CSU. "It is feasible that a wild puma could become infected following contact with domestic cats or deer shedding the virus."

Researchers studied puma DNA samples over a 10-year period

Meggan Craft, a professor in the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences, and Nick Fountain-Jones, a research associate at the University of Tasmania who previously worked in Craft's lab, led the study.

Craft and Fountain-Jones worked with colleagues at CSU and Colorado Parks and Wildlife to gather puma DNA samples in two comparable regions of the state over a 10-year period and to sequence the virus. In one region, hunting was banned for five years and then reinstated. In the other region, hunting was less commonly practiced.

The research team found that in the region where hunting was banned and then reinstated, disease transmission dynamics changed markedly. Less hunting led to higher levels of disease transmission and occurred primarily among males. Since hunters tend to target males, there were more males present during the no-hunting period, which potentially increased competition for territory and a higher likelihood of male-to-male contact which could lead to disease spread.

"We had a unique opportunity to test what happens when a population is changed by hunting," said Craft, who studies the spread of diseases in animal populations. "Our approach enabled us to provide insights into the cascading consequences of hunting and the cessation of hunting on host-pathogen dynamics."

The researchers noted that changes in wildlife management can have unexpected consequences.

"The key lesson from our research is that whenever management changes for a species, enhanced disease surveillance is a smart idea as there can be unintended consequences for virus evolution and spread," said Fountain-Jones.

VandeWoude agreed. "Human impacts on wildlife, including hunting, can significantly alter the way diseases spread among populations because of changes of behavior," she said. "This is not too surprising, but it underscores how relocating, displacing or harvesting animals results in changes in the way diseases can spread, with potentially more chance for spillover or enhanced viral evolution that could change virulence and the range of the host."

Craft, who is known internationally for her work in disease modeling in ecological systems, has published more than a dozen other papers relating to disease transmission in wild and domestic felids, members of the cat family. Her laboratory uses empirical data generated by collaborators to model disease transmission that is widely applicable across other wildlife disease systems.

Future studies will further analyze puma behavior and movements to better understand the circumstances in which the disease is transmitted in different ecosystems.Viral evolution in animals could reveal future of COVID-19

More information: Nicholas M. Fountain-Jones et al, Hunting alters viral transmission and evolution in a large carnivore, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01635-5

Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution 

Provided by Colorado State University 

Why are scientists bringing woolly mammoths back from extinction?

Woolly mammoths are being resurrected by scientists to combat climate change. - Copyright Canva

By Parisa Hashempour • Updated: 02/02/2022 - 

The woolly mammoth could be resurrected within a few years if a new biotech firm is successful.

Bioscience company Colossal plans to impregnate an elephant with an embryo made of mammoth and elephant cells.

This de-extinction is made possible by CRISPR gene-editing technology which, like molecular scissors, can insert the extinct DNA into the genome of an Asian elephant.

Mammoth DNA, collected from tusks, bones and other preserved body parts found in ice, will be sequenced to create an “elephant-mammoth hybrid” that looks like a furrier, larger elephant with smaller ears and a high-domed head.

An “elephant-mammoth hybrid” looks like a furrier, larger elephant with smaller ears and a high-domed head.

Already, thousands of changes have been made to a cell nucleus; it’s not known exactly how many are needed to bring the beasts back and enable them to survive in the freezing Arctic.

"Never before has humanity been able to harness the power of this technology to rebuild ecosystems, heal our Earth and preserve its future through the repopulation of extinct animals," says co-founder of the new firm, Ben Lamm.

Last year, the bioscience company announced it had managed to raise €12.6 million from investors so far, in order to achieve the co-founder’s vision of de-extinction. These include billionaire entrepreneurs such as PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and the Winklevoss twins.

An alternative take on our changing climate, from a leading meteorologist

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A new form of ecological conservation

Woolly mammoths went extinct around 4,000 years ago at the end of the last “ice-age”. Bringing them back, Colossal’s team says, is a step towards new technological advancements in environmental conservation.

"Colossal leverages the exponential progress made in technologies for reading and writing DNA and applies it to iconic ecological conservation and carbon sequestration issues," says fellow co-founder, George Church.

The Harvard University geneticist and other proponents of the de-extinction movement say that along with new insights in the fields of biology and evolution, the project has the power to help repair ecosystems and improve biodiversity.

Church has suggested that genetic work could also protect endangered elephants, giving them enough advantages to thrive in other climates. “We’d like to see them occupying every continent of the world, except for the two [mammoths didn’t inhabit] - Antarctica and Australia,” he said in a recent interview.

“We hope to set up stations away from human populations so the [Arctic] elephants have room to roam and prosper.

Woolly mammoths lived from the Pliocene epoch (from around 5 million years ago) into the Holocene at about 4,000 years ago.

Canva

How could mammoths mitigate climate change?

Colossal has also suggested that woolly mammoths may have the capacity to revitalise Arctic grasslands.

Without these heavy-footed herbivores, there is a danger that trees, moss and scrubs will take over too much of the land, which prevents frost from penetrating the soil so easily.

Arctic permafrost is one of the most critical topographies in the world, keeping carbon frozen underground, but it has been gradually thawing in a feedback loop that accelerates global warming.

Roaming mammoths encouraged grasslands to dominate instead, enabling permafrost to penetrate deeper into the ground. Church hopes that herds of ‘Arctic elephants’ could help swing the process back.

Pending their arrival, a bold research project is underway in Siberia. The Pleistocene Park is a huge experiment to restore the mammoth steppe ecosystem that dominated the Arctic in the Pleistocene period 12,000 years ago. Other herbivores including reindeer, moose and yak are currently keeping the grasslands low.

The Iberian Lynx makes a comeback in Spain after near extinction

Good news for the ocean as tuna species bounce back from the brink of extinction

These endangered ‘scrotum’ frogs breathe through their saggy skin

De-extinction is not without its problems

"The conversation thus far has been focused on whether or not we can do this. Now, we are progressing toward the: ‘Holy crap, we can - so should we?' phase," says Douglas McCauley, an ecologist at University of California, Santa Barbara.

In 2016, McCauley provided a guideline for de-extinction, which concluded that any large scale de-extinction plan would be overly expensive and counterproductive.

Researchers who have debated the costs of de-extinction programs argue that the money could be better spent elsewhere, namely on efforts to prevent the extinction of the world’s plants and animals today. As it stands, over 30 per cent of trees worldwide are threatened by extinction and the UN has warned one million species today are now at risk in total.

There is also some concern that bringing extinct species back to life may have the potential to surface unknown pathogens. These viruses and bacteria may be able to infect humans or other animals.

MINERAL ALCHEMY

Earth’s ‘Goldilocks zone’ responsible for metal ore deposit formation

MINING.COM Staff Writer | February 1, 2022 

Platinum-palladium ore. (Reference image by James St. John, Flickr).

UK and Australia-based researchers have identified the mechanism through which copper, cobalt, tellurium and platinum are passed from the earth’s mantle to the crust.


In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists explain that they have discovered a ‘Goldilocks zone’ at the base of our planet’s crust where the temperature is just right at around 1000°C for metals to be transported to shallower levels near the surface, where they can be mined.

The main issue at hand is that most of these metals are primarily stored at depths of more than 25 kilometres, making them inaccessible for exploitation. Yet in certain parts of the world, nature can bring them to the surface through the flow of liquid rock, known as magma, that originates in the earth’s mantle and rises upwards into the crust.

However, up until now the journey of metals to their final deposition site had been uncertain.

The study, thus, clarifies how a temperature-dependent zone, located at the base of the earth’s crust, acts as a valve and intermittently allows the metals to pass upwards to reach the upper crust.

“When magmas reach the base of the crust the critical metals often get trapped here and cannot reach the surface if the temperature is either too hot or too cold,” co-author Iain McDonald said in a media statement. “As with Goldilocks, we have discovered that if the temperature is ‘just right’ at around 1000°C, then metals like copper, gold and tellurium can escape the trap and rise up towards the surface to form ore deposits.”

In McDonald’s view and that of his colleagues, these findings can lead to more targeted, less costly, and more environmentally friendly practices to explore for and extract metals that are key to the manufacturing of renewable energy technologies.

Geologists Uncover 'Goldilocks

 Zone' For Precious Metals In

 Earth's Crust

• Press Release - Source: University of Leicester
• Posted January 31, 2022 
  

Copper is found in sulfide ores such as chalcopyrite and bornite in porphyry deposits.

Leicester research has identified a new 'Goldilocks Zone' in the Earth's crust which could provide metals vital to the green revolution.

The energy future of humankind depends on the continued supply of key metals like gold, copper and tellurium that are essential in the manufacturing of green technology, such as battery storage devices, solar panels and wind turbines.

Now, a new international study led by researchers from the Centre for Sustainable Resource Extraction at the University of Leicester, published today (Monday) in Nature Communications, and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), has discovered the presence of a temperature dependent 'valve' located at the base of the Earth's crust, which intermittently allows these important metals to pass upwards to shallower levels.

Critical metals required to enhance the green energy revolution are largely stored in the mantle of our planet, at depths in excess of multiple tens of kilometres that are inaccessible to direct extraction.

Fortunately, every now and then, nature does most of the hard work for us. Magmas sourced from within the Earth's mantle rise up into the crust and have the potential to carry, and then concentrate and deposit, large volumes of metals.

Dr David Holwell is an Associate Professor in Applied and Environmental Geology and lead author for the study. He said:

"When magmas reach the base of the crust, the conditions there act like a 'Goldilocks Zone' for these metals. If the temperature is either too hot or too cold, these 'valves' remain shut and metals cannot pass through, but we have found that in many cases, it may be 'just right' at around 1,000°C, where metals like copper, gold and tellurium can be released."

This finding sheds light on the planetary cycle of metals and how some of the world's largest resources of copper are formed. The work is part of the NERC-funded FAMOS project (From Arc Magmas to Ores), and involved collaborators from Cardiff University, the University of Western Australia and the mining company BHP.

Professor Jamie Wilkinson, of the Natural History Museum, London, is Principal Investigator for the FAMOS project, and added:

"This paper represents a fantastic piece of work from the project team that sheds new light on magmatic processes that operate deep in the Earth's crust but which have major implications for the accessibility of critical metals for humankind. The results will enable more targeted mineral exploration, thus lowering the environmental footprint associated with the discovery and extraction of green metals."

'Mobilisation of deep crustal sulfide melts as a first order control on upper lithospheric metallogeny' is published in Nature Communications.

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Scientists identify geological 'Goldilocks zone' for the formation of metal ore deposits

by Cardiff University

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Scientists have identified a mechanism through which important metals, crucial to the manufacturing of renewable energy technologies, are passed from the Earth's mantle to the crust.

The team, including researchers from Cardiff University, has discovered a 'Goldilocks zone' at the base of the Earth's crust where the temperate is just right at around 1000°C for metals to be transported to shallower levels near the surface, where they can be mined.

The metals in question—most notably copper, cobalt, tellurium and platinum—are highly-sought after due to their use in electrical wiring and technologies such as battery storage devices, solar panels and fuel cells.

Publishing their findings today in the journal Nature Communications, the team is hopeful that the results can lead to more targeted, less costly, and more environmentally friendly practices to explore for and extract the key metals.

The metals are primarily stored in the Earth's mantle—a thick layer of rock that sits between the Earth's core and crust—at depths of more than 25km, making them inaccessible for exploitation.

Yet in certain parts of the world, nature can bring these metals to the surface through the flow of liquid rock, known as magma, that originates in the Earth's mantle and rises upwards into the crust.

However, up until now the journey of metals to their final deposition site has been uncertain.

In the new study, the team identified a temperature dependant zone, located at the base of the Earth's crust, which acts like a valve and intermittently allows the metals to pass upwards to reach the upper crust.

Co-author of the study Dr. Iain McDonald said: "When magmas reach the base of the crust the critical metals often get trapped here and cannot reach the surface if the temperature is either too hot or too cold.

"As with Goldilocks, we have discovered that if the temperature is 'just right' at around 1000°C, then metals like copper, gold and tellurium can escape the trap and rise up towards the surface to form ore deposits."

The study forms a component of the NERC-funded FAMOS project (From Arc Magmas to Ore Systems), and involved collaborators from Cardiff University, Leicester University, the University of Western Australia and the international mining company BHP.

Professor Jamie Wilkinson, of the Natural History Museum, London, is Principal Investigator for the FAMOS project, and added: "This paper represents a fantastic piece of work from the project team that sheds new light on magmatic processes that operate deep in the Earth's crust but which exert a first-order control on the accessibility of critical metals for humankind. The results will enable more targeted mineral exploration, thus lowering the environmental footprint associated with the discovery and extraction of green metals."

New tools to unearth rare metals

Journal information: Nature Communications 

Provided by Cardiff University 

Southern Ocean outgassing affects the global carbon budget

ByAndrei Ionescu

Earth.com staff writer

02-01-2022

Since it contains large amounts of carbon dioxide, the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica plays a highly important role in global climate. According to a new study led by the University of Gothenburg, storms over the waters of this ocean drive a massive outgassing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 

Studying in greater depth the complex processes driving air-sea fluxes of gases in the Southern Ocean can provide a better understanding of climate change and lead to more accurate global climate models.

“The Southern Ocean is a key component of the Earth’s carbon budget. It accounts for 40–50% of the total mean annual ocean uptake of anthropogenic CO2,” wrote the study authors

Since climate change causes increasingly frequent storms, it is vital to understand the storms’ impact on the outgassing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

“We show how the intense storms that often occur in the region increase ocean mixing and bring carbon dioxide-rich waters from the deep to the surface. This drives an outgassing of carbon dioxide from the ocean to the atmosphere. There has been a lack of knowledge about these complex processes, so the study is an important key to understanding the Southern Ocean’s significance for the climate and the global carbon budget,” explained study co-author Sebastiaan Swart, a professor of Oceanography at the University of Gothenburg.

In order to measure the stormy, inaccessible waters surrounding Antarctica for a long period of time, the scientists used novel robot technology, including state-of-the-art drones and ocean gliders that collected data not only from the surface of the ocean but also through to depths of one kilometer.

“This pioneering technology gave us the opportunity to collect data with long endurance, which would not have been possible via a research vessel. Thanks to these ocean robots we can now fill important knowledge gaps and gain a better understanding of the importance of the ocean for the climate,” said Professor Swart.

“This knowledge is necessary to be able to make more accurate predictions about future climate change. Currently, these environmental processes are not captured by global climate models,” added study co-author Marcel du Plessis, an expert in Physical Oceanography at the University of Gothenburg.

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.