A robotic arm clamping onto a polymetallic nodule—with a delicate, living coral rooted directly to it—is a photograph of an active extinction event in slow motion. It shows the literal mechanism of destruction in the abyssal plain.

Those nodules take millions of years to form, and for deep-sea corals, they are the only hard surface to anchor onto in a world of soft mud. Scraping up the nodules means erasing the habitat forever.

#photography
#MarineLife
#DeepSeaMining
#nodules
#extinction