Key points
- During test mining, a science vessel and monitoring stations tracked the benthic plume, finding it forms a turbidity current that settles within a couple of kilometers of the directly mined area.
- That settling distance gives regulators a precise definition of how far the mining impact spreads.
- One year after mining, researchers returned to the site and found many nodules previously covered by sediment were uncovered again.
- The uncovered nodules were available again as habitat for nodule-obligate organisms.
