You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search. This is an area where technological advances have a direct impact on knowledge acquisition. Deep-sea research could also generate a new industry with the market for deep-sea technologies, and not just the conventional and operational offshore oil sector, as the backdrop.
The techniques for investigating the shelf and the deep-sea often apply the same principles, based on a geophysical approach, but differ significantly in scale acoustic frequency, power and penetration. They require heavy equipment capable of working in the deep-sea to 6, m.
It is on the seafloor that deep-sea mineral resources are found: mud with rare earth elements and polymetallic nodules 5,, m , massive sulphide deposits 1,, m and polymetallic crusts , m such as those reported in the French Polynesian EEZ. After a few attempts focused on nodules in the s, we are now witnessing the first signs of renewed interest for deep-sea mineral resources excluding oil from the industry see III However, the means used for investigation still mainly come through public oceanographic research.
Indeed, exploration conducted in these extreme environments relies on scientific and technological expertise developed over nearly half a century in research programmes carried out by national institutions. As a result, the various stakeholders involved in exploring deep-sea mineral resources are oceanographers, geologists, biologists, technology developers and so on.
They work in the public domain research organisations or, more rarely, in private companies. When it comes to developing marine mining, this research community is called on to verify whether the mineral occurrences discovered by geological exploration can be used to identify deposits with economic potential. Their activities often take place in the context of exploration and research permits issued by the International Seabed Authority ISA for international waters and by sovereign nations for their EEZ.
