Hidden deep beneath the South China Sea lies a realm as alien as it is vital: a frigid, lightless world where methane seeps from the ocean floor, sustaining an ecosystem of ghostly tubeworms, clams and microbial mats.
Here, 2,000 metres (6,560 feet) down, China is building the world’s first long-term undersea outpost to unlock the secrets of a resource that could dwarf the Persian Gulf’s oil reserves – flammable ice.
On March 1, Beijing officially announced the construction of a deep-sea habitat in these methane-rich “cold seep” zones, where six researchers will live for month-long stretches to study gas hydrates – crystalline formations of methane trapped in ice.
With 80 billion tonnes of oil-equivalent reserves – far surpassing the Gulf’s 50 billion-tonne proven oil stocks – these vast hydrate deposits could redefine energy geopolitics.
But scientists have warned that careless extraction risks ecological collapse and catastrophic leaks of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
In that way, the deep sea space station is not merely about energy. “It’s about guarding the oceans,” said Professor Wang Shuhong, a leading marine geologist, in a lecture posted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on social media last month.
