Clarion–Clipperton zone#Clarion fracture zone

The fractures can be divided into four parts:

• The first, 127°–113° W, is a broad, low welt of some {{convert|900|miles}}, with a central trough {{convert|10 to 30|miles}} wide;
• The second, 113°-107° W, is a volcano enriched ridge, {{convert|60|miles}} wide and {{convert|330|miles}} long;
• The third, 107°-101° W, is a low welt with a central trough {{convert|1,200–2,400|feet}} deep which transects the Albatross Plateau; and
• The fourth, 101°-96° W, contains the Tehuantepec Ridge which extends {{convert|400|miles}} northeast to the continental margin.{{cite journal |author=H. W. Menard and Robert L. Fisher |year=1958 |title=Clipperton Fracture in the Northeastern Equatorial Pacific |journal=The Journal of Geology |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=239–253 |bibcode=1958JG.....66..239M |doi=10.1086/626502 |jstor=30080925 |s2cid=129268203}}

The Nova-Canton Trough is often seen as an extension of the fractures.{{cite book|title=Contributions – Scripps Institution of Oceanography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2JHzAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=17 November 2011|year=1972|publisher=Scripps Institution of Oceanography|page=69}}

The zone contains nodules made up of valuable rare-earth and other minerals. Some of these play an essential role for the energy transition to a low carbon economy.{{cite book |last1=Church |first1=Clare |last2=Crawford |first2=Alec |series=Lecture Notes in Energy |title=The Geopolitics of the Global Energy Transition |date=2020 |volume=73 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |location=Cham |isbn=978-3-030-39066-2 |pages=279–304 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-39066-2_12 |access-date=28 January 2021 |language=en |chapter=Minerals and the Metals for the Energy Transition: Exploring the Conflict Implications for Mineral-Rich, Fragile States|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-39066-2_12 |s2cid=226561697 }} These nodules form around bone fragments or shark teeth. Micronodules then further aggregate and accrete into the clumps targeted for harvesting.{{Cite news |last1=Imbler |first1=Sabrina |last2=Corum |first2=Jonathan |date=2022-08-29 |title=Deep-Sea Riches: Mining a Remote Ecosystem |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/29/world/deep-sea-riches-mining-nodules.html |access-date=2023-04-12 |issn=0362-4331}}

{{maplink|frame=yes|frame-align=right|frame-width=310|frame-height=175|frame-long=-130|frame-lat=12.5|zoom=2|raw={{Wikipedia:Map data/Fracture zone}}|text=Approximate surface projection on ocean of Clipperton and Clarion fracture zones (violet). Other nearby fracture zones (orange), mid-oceanic ridges (white) and associated features such as probable extension of fracture zones (lighter violet or orange) are also shown. Click to expand map to obtain interactive fracture zone details.General citations for named fracture zones are at page Wikipedia:Map data/Fracture zone and specific citations are in interactive detail.}}

The Clipperton fracture zone is the southernmost of the north east Pacific Ocean lineations. It begins east-northeast of the Line Islands and ends in the Middle America Trench off the coast of Central America,{{cite book |last=Keating |first=Barbara H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wKCYe5haiCUC&pg=PA156 |title=Seamounts, islands, and atolls |publisher=American Geophysical Union |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-87590-068-1 |page=156 |accessdate=17 November 2011 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} forming a rough line on the same latitude as Kiribati and Clipperton Island, from which it gets its name.

The Clarion fracture zone is the next Pacific lineation north of Clipperton FZ. It is bordered on the northeast by Clarion Island, the westernmost of the Revillagigedo Islands, from which it gets its name. Both fracture zones were discovered by the U.S. research vessels "Horizon" and "Spencer F. Baird" in 1954.{{Cite web |title=Marine Regions · Clarion Fracture Zone (Fracture Zone) |url=https://marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=7454 |access-date=2023-10-22 |website=marineregions.org}}

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The CCZ has been divided into 16 mining claims spanning approximately {{convert|1,000,000|km2|mi2|abbr=}}. A further nine areas, each covering {{convert|160,000|km2|mi2|abbr=}}, have been set aside for conservation. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) estimates that the total amount of nodules in the Clarion–Clipperton zone exceeds 21 billion tons (Bt), containing about 5.95 Bt of manganese, 0.27 Bt of nickel, 0.23 Bt of copper and 0.05 Bt of cobalt.{{cite book|title=A Geological Model of Polymetallic Nodule Deposits in the Clarion–Clipperton Fracture Zone and Prospector's Guide for Polymetallic Nodule Deposits in the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone. Technical Study: No. 6|last1=International Seabed Authority|date=2010|isbn=978-976-95268-2-2}} The ISA has issued 19 licences for mining exploration within this area.{{Cite web|title=Exploration Contracts {{!}} International Seabed Authority|url=https://www.isa.org.jm/exploration-contracts|access-date=2021-11-30|website=www.isa.org.jm}} Exploratory full-scale extraction operations were set to begin in late 2021. ISA aimed to publish the deep sea mining code in July 2023. Commercial license applications were to be accepted for review thereafter.{{Cite news|last=Reid|first=Helen|date=2021-10-29|title=New deep-sea mining rules set to miss 2023 deadline, Latam and Caribbean countries say|language=en|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/un-deep-sea-mining-rules-unlikely-be-completed-by-2023-deadline-latam-countries-2021-10-28/|access-date=2021-12-07}}

The so-called two-year rule states that before regulations are passed, a member nation has the authority to notify ISA that it wants to mine. This starts a two-year clock during which the ISA can come up with rules. If it fails to do so, the mining is implicitly approved. Nauru gave notice in July 2021, creating a deadline of July 9, 2023. ISA's next meeting, however, begins a day later, on July 10.

Areas of the fracture zone that have been licensed for mining are home to a diversity of deep-sea xenophyophores. A 2017 study found 34 novel species in the area. Xenophyophores are highly sensitive to human disturbances, such that mining may adversely affect them. They play a keystone role in benthic ecosystems such that their removal could amplify ecological consequences.{{Cite journal|date=2017-03-01|title=Giant protists (xenophyophores, Foraminifera) are exceptionally diverse in parts of the abyssal eastern Pacific licensed for polymetallic nodule exploration|journal=Biological Conservation|language=en|volume=207|pages=106–116|doi=10.1016/j.biocon.2017.01.006|issn=0006-3207|doi-access=free|last1=Gooday|first1=Andrew J.|last2=Holzmann|first2=Maria|last3=Caulle|first3=Clémence|last4=Goineau|first4=Aurélie|last5=Kamenskaya|first5=Olga|last6=Weber|first6=Alexandra A.-T.|last7=Pawlowski|first7=Jan}} The nodules are considered "critical for food web integrity".{{Cite journal |last1=Stratmann |first1=Tanja |last2=Soetaert |first2=Karline |last3=Kersken |first3=Daniel |last4=van Oevelen |first4=Dick |date=2021-06-10 |title=Polymetallic nodules are essential for food-web integrity of a prospective deep-seabed mining area in Pacific abyssal plains |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=12238 |doi=10.1038/s41598-021-91703-4 |issn=2045-2322 |pmc=8192577 |pmid=34112864}} The zone hosts corals, sea cucumbers, worms, dumbo octopuses and many other species.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology and TU Delft use their ISA observer status to investigate the potential impact of collecting these minerals and compare it to the environmental and human impact of terrestrial mining.{{cite web |last1=Gallagher |first1=Mary Beth |title=Understanding the impact of deep-sea mining |url=https://news.mit.edu/2019/understanding-impact-deep-sea-mining-1206 |website=MIT News {{!}} Massachusetts Institute of Technology |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=28 January 2021 |language=en}}[https://blueharvesting-project.eu/ 9 European partners work together to help the maturation of a hydraulic nodule collector, while minimizing its environmental footprint], blueharvesting-project.eu In April 2021, scientists from JPI oceans project carried out in depth studies into mining technology and its possible effect on the seabed.{{Cite web |title=Assessing the Impacts of Nodule Mining on the Deep-Sea Environment |url=https://www.jpi-oceans.eu/news-events/news/assessing-impacts-nodule-mining-deep-sea-environment |access-date=2021-12-07 |website=www.jpi-oceans.eu |language=en}}

Mining has the potential for large environmental impacts. The impact of the release of tailings from nodule processing into the water column on pelagic organisms or the detrimental effects they may have on the benthic communities below are unknown.{{Cite journal|last=Schriever|first=G.|date=2009-05-04|title=SS Ocean Mining: Development of Environmental Research related to future Deep Sea Mining - Are Concerns justified and what should be done?|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4043/19935-ms|journal=All Days|publisher=OTC|doi=10.4043/19935-ms|url-access=subscription}}

Along with the xenophyophores, many types of species reside in the Clarion–Clipperton zone: protists, microbial prokaryotes, and various fauna including megafauna, macrofauna, and meiofauna, each distinguished by size.NORI D Collector Test EIS – Final – Chapter 6. (2022). In The Metals Company. Due to the lack of historical research in the region—in large part because of the inaccessibility, monetary, and physical cost without modern technology—very little is known about life in the CCZ. The increasing tests in the region have led to the discovery of many new species, suggesting both a high species richness and high species rarity within the CCZ. It seems that polymetallic nodules in the region, the target of much deep-sea mining, are crucial for fostering a high level of biodiversity on the sea floor. Even so, there are many gaps in the current understanding of the ecosystem roles played, life history traits, sensitivities, spatial or temporal variabilities, and resilience of these species.Amon, D.; Gollner, S.; Morato, T.; Smith, C.; Chen, C.; Christiansen, S., et al. (2022). Assessment of scientific gaps related to the effective environmental management of deep-seabed mining. UC San Diego. Report #: ARTN 105006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2022.105006 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0w48f05q

Much of what is known about the potential environmental impact is a result of a dredging pilot test conducted in 1978. In the years since the tests, the region has been monitored. Many species here are more susceptible to the negative effects of environmental shifts as change at these depths is atypical. Specifically looking at nematodes, it has been determined that there is a lower species richness and lower total biomass in the area where the dredging occurred as compared to the neighboring spaces. Additionally, the composition of species and the frequencies at which they are found change with human interference. The removal of polymetallic nodules, as proposed through deep-sea mining, would decrease suitable habitat as many species of nematodes reside within the upper five centimeters where nodules exist, too. Even those species that do remain will face changes to their habitat conditions as the new top layer of sediment after the removal of the nodules will be significantly denser. The low sedimentation levels and minimal currents show that disruption in the CCZ would have long-lasting effects on the environment; the upturned sediment remains unsettled even decades later.Miljutin, Dmitry & Miljutina, Maria & Martinez Arbizu, Pedro & Galéron, Joëlle. (2011). Deep-sea nematode assemblage has not recovered 26 years after experimental mining of polymetallic nodules (Clarion–Clipperton fracture zone, Tropical Eastern Pacific). Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 58. 10.1016/j.dsr.2011.06.003. Additionally, nodules form for millions of years; as such their removal would fundamentally alter the ecosystem for millennia to come. The species directly dependent on them, and all of their subsequent linkages or environmental functions would see vast changes that could not be quickly restored after the damage is complete.

The vast majority of relevant spheres are still lacking adequate research. What is known makes clear that many aspects of deep-sea mining activity would endanger species in the Clarion–Clipperton zone; they face threats of being crushed by machinery, dispelled in sediment plumes, smothered by unsettled sediment, the loss of resources and habitat, etc. This does not include the threats posed by noise and light pollution—the effects of which are still largely unknown.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web |

url = https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deep-sea-mining-could-begin-soon-regulated-or-not/ | title = Deep-Sea Mining Could Begin Soon, Regulated or Not | last1= Heffernan | first1 = Olive |date = 2023-10-23 | publisher = Scientific American}}

• {{cite web | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf1GvrUqeIA | title = The race to mine the bottom of the ocean | author = Laura Bult (producer) | date = 2023-10-11 | publisher = Vox }}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

Category:Fracture zones

Category:Pacific Ocean

Category:Mining

Category:Environmental conservation