ERASE
Investigation of the erodibility of deep-sea beds in context of deep-sea mining in the manganese nodule license area, NE- Pacific
Project information
Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Vowinckel and Prof. Dr. Jochen Aberle (TU Braunschweig)
Duration: 1 year, since January 2024
funded by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR)
Project description
The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) is conducting geological investigations in the "German license area for the exploration of polymetallic nodules" in the Clairon-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ) in the equatorial northeast Pacific in order to assess the raw material potential. This is being done as part of an agreement with the International Seabed Authority (IMB), which stipulates that environmental reference data must be collected by each contractor. An important aspect of this is the recording of sediment properties on the seabed in order to assess the impact of possible industrial mining of manganese nodules.
It is already known from a large number of studies that the mining of manganese nodules stirs up sediment and creates turbidity clouds, which are characterized by increased concentrations of suspended matter. The suspended particles are transported into the surrounding area by deep-sea currents and are deposited on the seabed. Depending on the particle properties and the currents present on the seabed, the deposited sediment is not transported further and can lead to impairment of the organisms living there.
As part of the project "Investigation of the erodibility of deep-sea beds in context of deep-sea mining in the manganese nodule license area, NE- Pacific" (ERASE), the resuspension behaviour of freshly deposited deep-sea sediments is to be investigated using experimental studies and numerical simulations. The investigations are performed in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Aberle, Head of the Department of Hydraulic Engineering and River Morphology at the Leichtweiß-Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources at the Technical University of Braunschweig.