Fig. 1: The three mining lanes and the seafloor morphology of the nodule impact site. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: The three mining lanes and the seafloor morphology of the nodule impact site.

From: Monitoring benthic plumes, sediment redeposition and seafloor imprints caused by deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining

Fig. 1: The three mining lanes and the seafloor morphology of the nodule impact site.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

a Global map85 and the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), between Central America and Hawaii, where most of the current polymetallic nodule exploration contract areas are located (black polygons)86. The Global Sea Mineral Resources NV exploration contract area, which is divided into three blocks, is marked in yellow. The red dot shows the location of the mining trial described in this study. The blue hashed squares represent Areas of Particular Environmental Interest (i.e., no mining areas), and the light blue blocks are Reserved Areas (i.e., areas reserved for developing nations)86. Exclusive Economic Zones87 are shown in darker blue. b Side-scan sonar map showing the nodule collector mining lanes and strips superimposed on the bathymetry (0.5 m isobath contours) and the locations of nearby sensor platforms. The mining lanes across the three parallel strips are visible due to their lower backscatter intensity related to nodule removal. The white box inside the second strip indicates part of the orthophoto-mosaic area presented in Fig. 2. c Slope distribution map of the impact site. Multibeam echosounder residual artifacts cause the NW-SE linear trending seafloor parts with slopes > 6.5° (red coloration).

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