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October 24, 2021: Manganese Nodule

Black manganese nodules like the one pictured here, a major research interest of the DeepCCZ expedition, grow slower still—in fact their growth is amongst the slowest of all geological phenomena, with rates of manganese accretion of less than half a centimeter every million years.

Image courtesy of the DeepCCZ expedition. Download larger version (jpg, 1.0 MB).

In the Pacific Ocean’s abyssal plains, time moves so slowly that even geological time elsewhere can appear faster in comparison. Even its weird and wonderful creatures often have much slower growth rates compared with their shallow water counterparts. Black manganese nodules like the one pictured here, a major research interest of the DeepCCZ expedition, grow slower still—in fact their growth is amongst the slowest of all geological phenomena, with rates of manganese accretion of less than half a centimeter every million years. At the size of a large potato, this nodule is tens of millions of years old.

From: Slicing Through Time.