Mysterious 'dark oxygen' produced in the deep ocean by lumps of metal

Metals on the deep-ocean floor produce 'dark oxygen' 13,000 feet below the surface, a new study has suggested. The finding challenges long-held assumptions that only photosynthetic organisms – those which use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to create fuel and oxygen – such as plants and algae generate Earth's oxygen. It may even call into question how life on Earth began. The study indicates oxygen also can be produced on the seafloor, where no light reaches, in order to support the oxygen-breathing (aerobic) sea life living in complete darkness. Andrew...