From the BBC website:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c728ven2v9eo
I found this fascinating. Note the twist: plans to mine these nodules on the sea floor for their rare metals. Maybe this new discovery will add pressure for a rethink.
Originally Posted by: Gandalf The White
Yes this was a fascinating observation. They were trying to measure an oxygen
decrease in a sea floor chamber due to O2 uptake by seafloor lifeforms but ended up measuring an
increase instead.
This reminded me a lot of the "Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy" debates in cosmology where there is an inconvenient observation and the search starts for a theory to try and fit the new facts
In this case they are looking at the presence of metallic globules being deposited on seafloor objects where there is a junction of different metals allowing electron flow (current) which ionises the water around it. One obvious measurement which I didn't see anywhere in the report would be to see if there was also a H2 increase in the same chambers to add weight to the water splitting theory