What's the News: Researchers have found high concentrations of rare earth metals, essential materials for making nearly all high-tech electronics, in mud on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, according to study published online earlier this week in Nature Geoscience. These huge deposits could help satisfy ever-increasing demand for rare earth metals, but there are major questions about the economic viability and ecological effects of mining the seabed. How the Heck:
The research team took 2,000 samples of sediment from the seabed, ranging from over 2 miles to almost 4 miles below the surface, at 78 locations in the Pacific Ocean.
Samples from the eastern Pacific had rare earth metal concentrations up to 0.2%, and samples near Hawaii had concentrations as high as 0.1%---comparable to or greater than the concentrations at some rare earth mines in China, the scientists noted. (You can see a map of their findings here.)
The ...
