The Clipperton Fracture Zone, also known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, is a geological submarine

fracture zone A fracture zone is a linear feature on the ocean floor—often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers long—resulting from the action of offset mid-ocean ridge axis segments. They are a consequence of plate tectonics. Lithospheric plates on ei ...

of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, with a length of around 4500 miles (7240 km). The zone spans approximately . It is one of the five major lineations of the northern Pacific floor, south of the Clarion Fracture Zone, discovered by the

Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for ocean and Earth science research, public servi ...

in 1950. The fracture, an unusually mountainous topographical feature, begins east-northeast of the

Line Islands The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands (in Gilbertese, ''Aono Raina'') are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Haw ...

and ends in the

Middle America Trench The Middle America Trench is a major subduction zone, an oceanic trench in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the southwestern coast of Middle America, stretching from central Mexico to Costa Rica. The trench is 1,700 miles (2,750 km) long an ...

off the coast of Central America. It roughly forms a line on the same latitude as

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

and

Clipperton Island Clipperton Island ( or ; ) is an uninhabited, coral atoll in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is from Paris, France, from Papeete, Tahiti, and from Mexico. It is an overseas state private property of France under direct authority of the Minist ...

. In 2016, the seafloor in the Clipperton Fracture Zone – an area being researched for

deep-sea mining Deep sea mining is a growing subfield of experimental seabed mining that involves the retrieval of minerals and deposits from the ocean floor found at depths of or greater. As of 2021, the majority of marine mining efforts are limited to shal ...

due to the abundant presence of

manganese nodule Polymetallic nodules, also called manganese nodules, are mineral concretions on the sea bottom formed of concentric layers of iron and manganese hydroxides around a core. As nodules can be found in vast quantities, and contain valuable metals, ...

resources – was also found to contain an abundance and diversity of life, with more than half of the species collected being new to science. The zone is sometimes referred to as the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCFZ), with reference to

Clarion Island Isla Clarión, formerly called Santa Rosa, is the second largest, westernmost and most remote of Mexico's Revillagigedo Islands. The island is located west of Socorro Island and over from the Mexican mainland. It has an area of and three p ...

at the northern edge of the zone.

Geography

The fracture can be divided into four distinct parts: *The first, 127°–113° W, is a broad, low welt of some 900 miles, with a central trough 10 to 30 miles wide; *The second, 113°-107° W, is a volcano enriched ridge, 60 miles wide and 330 miles long; *The third, 107°-101° W, is a low welt with a central trough 1,200–2,400 feet deep which transects the Albatross Plateau; and *The fourth, 101°-96° W, contains the

Tehuantepec Ridge The Tehuantepec Ridge is a linear undersea ridge located off the west coast of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean. It is the remnant of an old fracture zone, and not a tectonic spreading center ridge (''see'' mid-ocean ridge). It extends from the easte ...

which extends 400 miles northeast to the continental margin. The Nova-Canton Trough is often seen as an extension of the fracture.

Deep sea mining

The zone, which is administered by the

International Seabed Authority The International Seabed Authority (ISA) (french: Autorité internationale des fonds marins) is a Kingston, Jamaica-based intergovernmental body of 167 member states and the European Union established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of ...

(ISA), contains

nodules Nodule may refer to: *Nodule (geology), a small rock or mineral cluster *Manganese nodule, a metallic concretion found on the seafloor *Nodule (medicine), a small aggregation of cells *Root nodule Root nodules are found on the roots of plants, p ...

made up of various

rare-earth element The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides (yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silv ...

s dubbed as playing an essential role for the

energy transition The energy transition is the process of Fossil fuel phase-out, downshifting fossil fuels and re-developing whole systems to operate on Low-carbon power, low carbon energy sources. More generally, an energy transition is a significant structura ...

to a

low carbon economy A low-carbon economy (LCE) or decarbonised economy is an economy based on energy sources that produce low levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. GHG emissions due to human activity are the dominant cause of observed climate change since the mi ...

. The zone has been divided into 16 mining claims spanning approximately . Further nine areas, each covering , have been set aside for conservation. The International Seabed Authority estimates that the total amount of nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone exceeds 21 billions of tons (Bt), containing about 5.95 Bt of

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy u ...

, 0.27 Bt of

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

, 0.23 Bt of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

and 0.05 Bt of

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, ...

. The ISA has issued 19 licences for deep-sea mining exploration within this area. Exploratory full-scale extraction operations are set to begin in late 2021. The ISA are aiming to publish the deep sea mining code in July 2023 though there is contention if they will meet this deadline, commercial licences will be accepted for review thereafter. These nodules are seeded by biogenic processes, micronodules are then further aggregated and accreted into the large clumps targeted for harvesting. Areas of the fracture zone that have been licensed for mining are home to a diversity of deep-sea

xenophyophores Xenophyophorea is a clade of foraminiferans. Members of this class are multinucleate unicellular organisms found on the ocean floor throughout the world's oceans, at depths of . They are a kind of foraminiferan that extract minerals from their ...

, with a 2017 study finding 34 species new to science in the area. As xenophyophores are highly sensitive to human disturbances, deep-sea mining may have adverse effects on the group; further, as they play a

keystone Keystone or key-stone or ''variation'', may refer to: * Keystone (architecture), a central stone or other piece at the apex of an arch or vault * Keystone (cask), a fitting used in ale casks Business * Keystone Law, a full-service law firm * D ...

role in benthic ecosystems their removal could amplify ecological consequences. Research is being conducted by different research organisations, including

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

and

TU Delft Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings am ...

, who have observer status in the International Seabed Authority, in order to fully investigate the potential impact of collecting these elements and compare it to the extensively researched

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

and human impact of terrestrial mining, with the intention of mitigating these impacts through policy. It is currently unknown how the release of

tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction ( gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overl ...

from nodule processing into the water column would affect pelagic organisms or the detrimental effects they may have on the benthic communities below.

Environmental concerns about deep sea mining

Deep sea mining has the potential for large impacts on the environment, specifically the polymetallic nodules found in this area are considered "critical for food web integrity". In April 2021 scientists from JPI oceans project travelled to the CCZ to carry out more in depth studies into the mining technology and its possible effect on the seabed. Major NGO's and governments have called for a moratorium on deep sea mining within the deep sea until more is known about potential environmental impacts.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=March 2017 Fracture zones Pacific Ocean Mining Environmental conservation