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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday April 17 2018, @03:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the apparently-not-so-rare dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Japanese researchers have mapped vast reserves of rare earth elements in deep-sea mud, enough to feed global demand on a "semi-infinite basis," according to a new study.

The deposit, found within Japan's exclusive economic zone waters, contains more than 16 million tons of the elements needed to build high-tech products ranging from mobile phones to electric vehicles, according to the study, released Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports.

[...] The finding extrapolates that a 2,500-sq. km region off the southern Japanese island should contain 16 million tons of the valuable elements, and "has the potential to supply these metals on a semi-infinite basis to the world," the study said.

The area reserves offer "great potential as ore deposits for some of the most critically important elements in modern society," it said.

The report said there were hundreds of years of reserves of most of the rare earths in the area surveyed.

Source:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/04/11/national/japan-team-maps-semi-infinite-trove-rare-earth-elements/


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  • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Tuesday April 17 2018, @09:40PM (2 children)

    by Hartree (195) on Tuesday April 17 2018, @09:40PM (#668312)

    "Hell some see it as their duty to bring the end."

    Count me in that column. I'm not into Raptures, but cold hard physics. The "reason" you exist is that complex chemical systems like life are more effective at transferring energy (and thus entropy) from the hot sunshine on one side of Earth to the colder space facing side and the relatively hot core (both compression heat and radioactive decay) and space.
    If you want a basic reason for life on Earth, it's hard to get lower level than that one. Thermodynamics and probability rather than philosophy or enlightenment.

    Now, since I at least delude myself that I have some sort of choice (free will) in my actions, I might not want to do that transfer in the most efficient and quick way (some refer to that as "more environmentally sound". Call it whatever you want). But, that's my own preference and in no way stops the ultimate ends.

    *grin* Now there's a depressing way to look at it.

    Or is it? Since we have no greater "duty" as it were, we get to set our own purposes within those limits of thermodynamics. I find that rather freeing.

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  • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday April 18 2018, @10:20PM (1 child)

    by Osamabobama (5842) on Wednesday April 18 2018, @10:20PM (#668743)

    The meaning of life looks different at different levels of abstraction. Physicists have their version, philosophers have theirs. In between are plenty of valid answers.

    It's probably the same as asking how to implement a sort function.

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    • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Thursday April 19 2018, @01:20AM

      by Hartree (195) on Thursday April 19 2018, @01:20AM (#668785)

      With my luck they'd implement it as bubble sort. ;)