iPhone 14 Pro Max
ƒ/1.78
6.86 mm
1/60
500

….just sitting there to be picked up.

I have these metals on my mind, and here is a short video on the geopolitical issue at hand.

2 responses to “The building blocks of EV batteries…”

  1. This is worth a deeper dive.

  2. I have known about these nodules for decades due to studying oceanography at NOAA/WoodsHole for a few weeks during college. Removing the nodules from the sea floor seems to be OK (they will regrow very slowly, and their role in deep ocean chemistry seems de minimis), but extraction must be done without disturbing the VERY delicate benthic ecosystem. Dredging or drag-netting is NOT cool, whereas, gentle robotic arms/hands that harvest the nodules one at a time (like picking fruit) before dropping them into a collection net/basket would be plenty fast enough and could be done in a way that LEAVES NO TRACE (other than the missing nodules) – just like we do at the Playa during BurningMan, and just like countless environmentalists, hikers, mountain climbers have been doing for decades when visting deep wilderness.

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