If you were to take a boat into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, you would eventually stumble into a submarine fracture zone that is twice the size of India at roughly six million square kilometers. Known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), the region is rich in minerals like cobalt and nickel and therefore immensely attractive to deep sea mining interests. Yet mining operations inevitably take a toll on nearby wildlife, and because the CCZ is so poorly understood, researchers conducting a study for the scientific journal Current Biology decided to create the first-ever "CCZ checklist" — that is, a list of all the species that inhabit this massive region.
The results? After reviewing data from all of the research expeditions performed in the region, the scientists learned that the CCZ has a total of 5,578 different species — and that between 88% and 92% of them had never before been discovered.
