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ITS MIX-ITOMETER data used in sediment plume study
With an increasing international focus on the opportunities and costs of deep seabed polymetallic nodule mining, a pressing environmental matter to be resolved is the scale of the sediment plume that would be generated by these activities.
A recent study looked into abyssal turbidity-current sediment plumes generated by a deep seabed polymetallic nodule mining preprototype collector vehicle.
Using data from a system that included our MIX-ITOMETER operating at a depth of over 4km, researchers found that 2-8% of the disturbed sediment remained 2m above the seabed for a number of hours, while the remaining 92-98% remained below 2m with a fraction being locally deposited.
Read the full study here.
