Slashdot Mirror
China Plans To Mine the Yellow Sea Floor
eldavojohn writes "Details are limited but state media is reporting on $75 million being put into a new research facility
in Qingdao, Shandong Province that will conduct research into mining the sea floor. From the article: 'Scientists believe sea beds at a depth of 4,000 to 6,000 meters hold abundant deposits of rare metals and methane hydrate, a solidified form of natural gas bound into ice that can serve as a new energy source.' The research center's first goal is to do surveying and exploration with a new submersible named 'Jiaolong' (a mythical aquatic Chinese dragon). Hopefully these quests yield energy resources to meet growing demand for resources like liquefied coal in China."
Since we don't have free energy we don't do stuff like distillation unless we have to. We have incredibly cheap energy in the form of coal and oil but it's just not cheap enough.
It breaks down into carbon dioxide after about 10 years (8 point something).
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
When i try that, i get a larger number...
3.61*10^14 m2 (ocean surface area) x 0.01 m = 3.61*10^12 m^3
3.61*10^12 m^3 = 3.61*10^3 km^3 = 3160 km^3
You'd need just a wee bit more..
We Americans keep tying our own hands behind our backs. Energy and resources = Power.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What a pretty graph - it must actually say something, right? Except as far as I can figure out it doesn't. "Human Development Index" plotted against "global hectares per capita"? WTF? Not only don't we know what a Human Development Index is, I challenge you to tell us what a "global hectare" is (and why it is different than a normal old area-of-measurement hectare), and why it is so significant when it is evaluated per capita per country.
Balderdash.