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(Image credit: ISA)

ISA Opens Deep Dive Applications for Seabed Governance Training Program

Researchers investigated a remote area of seafloor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean that was used as a test site for deep-sea mining by the Ocean Minerals Company in 1979. (Image credit: SMARTEX (Seabed Mining and Resilience To EXperimental Impact), National Oceanography Centre)

SMARTEX Study Finds 1979 Clarion-Clipperton Mining Scars Alter Seafloor Organics
During two expeditions on Ocean Exploration Trust’s Exploration Vessel Nautilus, autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was used to map and collect high-resolution imagery of the seafloor, like the image of polymetallic nodules on an abyssal plain seen here. The mapping and image data collected via Sentry serves to greatly expand the breadth of seafloor surveyed during a single expedition. (Image credit: Larry Mayer, UNH; AUV Sentry Team; Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

NOAA Ocean Exploration Completes Deep Seafloor Mapping of CNMI EEZ
Polymetallic nodules on the seafloor of the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ). (Image credit: National Oceanography Centre and the Trustees of the Natural History Museum, with acknowledgement to the NERC SMARTEX project)

Stepping Stone Reserves Could Connect CCZ Protected Areas Ahead of Deep-Sea Mining
An abyssal sea cucumber moves across a field of polymetallic nodules in the abyssal plain of the Clarion Clipperton Zone. (Image credit: National Oceanography Centre and Trustees of the Natural History Museum, with acknowledgement to the NERC SMARTEX project)

NOC Study Links Deep-Sea Fauna to Polymetallic Nodule Exposure
The research vessel SONNE has set sail from San Diego into the Pacific. Its destination is the Clarion-Clipperton Zone near the equator, where the largest known seabed deposits of polymetallic nodules are located. (Image credit: Tim Kalvelage)

RV SONNE Expedition Targets Polymetallic Nodule Mining Impacts in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone
Petrographic (A, D) SEM (B, E) and STEM (C, F) images of bladed marcasite (A, B,C) and bladed pyrrhotite (D,E,F). The petrographic images are reflected light under plane polarization. The brassy minerals in D are isocubanite being replaced by chalcopyrite. (Image credit: USGS)

USGS Study Flags Spontaneous Combustion Risk in Seafloor Massive Sulfide Mining
A field of polymetallic nodules seen during Dive 04 of the 2026 American Samoa ROV + Mapping Exploration expedition at a depth of approximately 5,140 meters (3.2 miles). (Credit: USGS)

USGS Tests Radon as a Geochemical Tracer for Deep-Sea Polymetallic Nodules
A stratigraphic scanning electron microscope tour showing the evolution of manganese-oxide mineralization of host sediment. Mn mineralization shows a multipronged process of formation including growth of Mn columns in soft sediment, cementation and then partial to complete replacement of the host sediment, Mn grain growth, Mn recrystallization, and late-stage void-fracture fill. Click image for full explanation. A new study led by USGS describes a previously undocumented style of hydrothermal manganese-oxide mineralization on the seabed near American Samoa, offering new insight into how seafloor mineral occurrences can form and how widespread similar deposits may be around the world. The study examined 24 dredge samples collected from three sites along the Samoan volcanic chain in the South Pacific. In many of these samples, researchers found evidence that hot, mineral-rich fluids moved upward through seafloor sediments, progressively replacing the original material with thick layers of manganese-oxide minerals. Hydrothermal systems occur where heated fluids circulate through Earth's crust and return to the seafloor, carrying dissolved metals and other elements. When those fluids encounter cooler surroundings, minerals can precipitate and accumulate. Manganese oxides are common components of seafloor mineral occurrences, but the new study documents something researchers had not previously observed: hydrothermal manganese oxides replacing sediment made up of foraminiferal carbonate. Foraminifera are microscopic marine organisms whose shells are commonly composed of calcium carbonate and can accumulate on the seafloor after the organisms die. (Credit: USGS)

USGS Documents Novel Seafloor Manganese-Oxide Deposits Near American Samoa
(Image credit: ISA)

South Korea Opens Five At-Sea Training Spots for ISA Cobalt Crust Exploration Program
(Image credit: ISA)

ISA Taxonomy School Trains 25 Scientists in Deep-Sea Biodiversity Methods
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