2023 Sammler, K. Seabed mining and the plume: circulations, turbulence, and material excess. STS-hub.de conference. Aachen, DE/virtual, 15-17 Mar.
Abstract: Emerging studies on seabed mining have brought attention to global ocean grabs, shifting geopolitics of mineral extraction, and dire environmental states of the sea. One of the many impacts of concern surrounding mining the deep is fallout from sediment plumes that get churned up from machinery on the seafloor or from the dumping of non-target materials back into the sea. Such a plume is the culmination of fine sediment particles suspended in the water column, creating two fluids of different momentums, densities, and viscosities—a challenge for modelling scales of impact. These manifestations can smother and choke ocean flora and fauna.
More broadly, some of the most destructive environmental disasters have involved plumes, one material inadvertently unleashed beyond control into another. The mediums of soil, water, and air – solid, liquid, and gaseous states of matter – are often imagined as discrete entities or framed politically and legally as distinct regimes. Yet the oil plume of Deepwater Horizon, Chernobyl’s radioactive plume, or natural gas plume from Nord Stream pipelines all demonstrate how various extractive industries and infrastructures loose dangerous circulations that defy cleanup and span multiple scales. Using seabed mining as a case for developing a spatial, socio-political, and more-than-human theorization of the plume, this paper examines the messy granular, molecular, and porous issues of environmental excess, with a focus on the scales and depths of flows.
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