Chapter 444 The Discovery of Photosynthetic Minerals
The two people were in front, and Chen Lin's security team followed from a distance. They basically had nothing to worry about Chen Lin's life safety. Chen Lin came down It’s not just once or twice, it’s already familiar.
He knows better than most people where the danger is and how to avoid it. These people in the guard are not even as familiar with the surrounding environment as Chen Lin.
Chen Lin accompanied Irina in the underwater forest area for more than ten minutes, as if shopping, and the two of them successfully arrived at the specially built lounge building in the underwater forest area.
“It was a purpose-built place to live in,”
Chen Lin pointed to the magnificent building not far away. The building is hidden in the underwater forest area. As the depth of the ocean decreases, the light here gradually becomes weaker. There are special underwater lights laid around the entire building. It looks like It's really quite beautiful.
The sunlight passes through the sea surface and is filtered by the sea water, forming bunches of mottled light and shadow, illuminating part of the seaweed forest on the seabed. These lights and shadows dance in the seafloor forest, like elves dancing, adding to this mysterious land. The forest adds a lot of poetry.
"It's so beautiful..."
Irina didn't wait for Chen Lin to speak again before joining the conversation: "It would be great if I could live here for a long time. I think I can I’ve lived here for several years and never get tired of it!”
Chen Lin paused slightly and looked into the distance, noticing that in the area between the houses and the kelp forest, he could see all kinds of things. Unique marine life like blue starfish survives among them.
Colorful fishes shuttle among the kelp forests, various seaweed vegetation emitting strange lights tremble with the fluctuations of the ocean currents, and crabs or shellfish are squirming in the sand on the seabed...
What Irina said was absolutely true. Chen Lin also had the idea of staying here for a long time. Although he later realized that this idea was unrealistic, it somewhat proved the success of the construction of Qinglong Base. .
“You will get tired of the claustrophobic environment at the bottom of the sea after living there for a few days.”
Chen Lin said with a smile, he took the lead in swimming forward, and said aloud as he swam: " But it’s still good to stay for two days, follow me!”
The group quickly took their identities seriously. As the door opened and the water valve started, everyone could immediately take off their power diving suits and breathe dry. of air.
Chen Lin led Irina here to watch the video introduction of Leviathan creatures. There are not many Leviathan creatures on the Blue Sea Star. Chen Lin specifically asked the staff to confirm that they were originally affected by the meteorite impact. The Desolate Sea caused the destruction of a large number of Leviathan creatures. The Leviathans in other areas were all alone and insignificant. The Sea King Leviathan was not found throughout the whole process...
I want to give it to Irina To show the overlord-level creatures under the sea, you can only rely on videos.
Ilina exclaimed from time to time. The Leviathan creatures that were photographed only moved tens of meters, and their deterrence on the seabed was full. After watching a few videos, Ilina Irina even had some undersea syndrome. In the end, Chen Lin had no choice but to give up the idea of continuing to let Irina watch.
"Most of the Leviathan creatures have disappeared..."
Chen Lin simply spoke to Irina, and the queen nodded slightly: "Still not looking. Well, if I directly encountered this kind of creature moving alive on the bottom of the sea, I would definitely scream in fear.”
Chen Lin burst out laughing. The Leviathan creature is a unique species of blue starfish. It is indeed very intimidating under the water. It is quite shocking for people who have never seen such creatures on land. of.
Chen Lin led Irina to play all afternoon, and he paid even more attention to dinner time in the evening. The restaurant here provided food for the two of them and the subsequent guards and others. It was a very good dinner, enough to make Chen Lin think it was good even at a glance.
Irina asked questions while eating like a curious baby, while Chen Lin patiently explained one by one. After all, as the empress of the empire, Irina can only live on Blue Starfish at most. She was only here for half a day, and she still needed to get back to the Origin Star in time. The Koman Empire added by Stuart was not stable without the Queen after all.
Although Irina said nice things to Chen Lin, in fact, the current situation in the Coman Empire does not allow Irina to run around.
The cabinet-parliamentary system she set out to improve requires the support of a strong person. Irina is the only background of the empire at present, so naturally she cannot leave the seat for a long time.
Chen Lin didn't care at all. After dinner, he personally sent Irina to the main entrance of the portal and let Irina return to the Origin Star, while he was thinking about where to stay at night.
"Brother, there is very interesting news!"
Xiao Wu came forward at this time and spoke to Chen Lin with a mysterious face, which made Chen Lin I think it's quite fun.
“What very interesting news, please elaborate!”
“I heard in the afternoon that a kind of seabed ore was discovered at Qinglong Base. It seems to be something special. That thing Many laboratory personnel rushed over! ”
"Is there such a thing?"
Chen Lin raised his eyebrows slightly. In the afternoon, he only accompanied Irina to play in the underwater forest area, but he had hardly heard of the news. Xiao Wu was As soon as he was reminded, he immediately became interested.
"Do you know where the thing is?"
"Not sure..."
"It's okay, I almost know where the thing should be."
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Chen Lin walked away happily, and the guards behind him hurriedly followed. Chen Lin had almost no resistance to such news. A newly discovered seabed ore was definitely not something Chen Lin could experience. deficit.
The mineral resources on Blue Sea Star are actually very rich. For example, a group of geologists first discovered that there are a large number of mineral nodules with a diameter of 5 to 10 centimeters in the deep sea mud at a water depth of 4,000 to 6,000 meters. These mineral nodules are rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals, and are called "polymetallic nodules", also known as manganese nodules.
These mineral nodules are very special. There are almost no corresponding samples on land. Even on the origin star, there is no corresponding sample comparison. This is also a blue sea star. A unique discovery.
In addition to 28% manganese, 1.3% nickel, 0.2% cobalt, and 0.06% molybdenum, metal nodules also contain rare earths such as platinum, tellurium, and bismuth with a total abundance of about 0.08%. Elements, these rare earths are equally important to the Red Dragon Association at this time. Precious metals are quietly waiting in the deep sea. As long as you have the ability, you can get a handful of them. Unfortunately, they are limited by some equipment and mining conditions. Due to the restrictions, the mineral nodules on the seabed of these blue starfish cannot be mined in time.
At a sea depth of 4,000 meters, the water pressure will reach 401 atmospheres. Even the most powerful saturation divers today can only dive to a maximum depth of 610 meters while wearing atmospheric suits. Humans cannot dive below the sea surface at a depth of 4,000 meters. normal activities, let alone mining.
It is possible to rely on remote control of machinery and equipment, but the cost is relatively high. Therefore, most of Blue Star's mineral mining has been shelved and mined on a small scale.
One of the more important reasons why blue starfish has always attracted so much attention is that it is extremely rich in minerals deep in the ocean.
Now Xiao Wu suddenly told Chen Lin that a new mineral element had been discovered. He wanted to check it out no matter what. In Chen Lin's mind, this so-called new mineral was most likely to be some kind of new mineral element. Special alien metal, otherwise it would never attract such attention from the laboratory.
Chen Lin rushed to the core area excitedly, and found the very busy laboratory in a few steps. There were dozens of people gathered in the small room, and they were all staring at the center. The huge blue ore was discussing their conjectures in a low voice.
Chen Lin's arrival did not cause any disturbance, and everyone's low-pitched discussion continued. Chen Lin took a look inside and noticed that the one in the middle was indeed some kind of mineral brought from the seabed. From the appearance, that thing It is a transparent or translucent mineral that is not conspicuous as a whole, but it can be seen that it emits weak fluorescence.
"What good stuff did you find?"
Chen Lin asked the staff member next to him. The staff member glanced at Chen Lin and then whispered: "Maybe It's some kind of energy crystal on the Blue Sea Star... When the submersible intelligent machine was scanning, it noticed the energy fluctuations emitted by this thing, so Fuxi informed him and asked the intelligent machine to transport a piece of it."
< br>“Have the characteristics been studied?”
“At present, this thing seems to have the photosynthesis of plants. It can absorb light energy, convert it into chemical energy, and store it inside the stone.”
The staff member said to Chen Lin, "We have only noticed this so far. The specific other characteristics require follow-up research to know."
Chen Lin nodded slightly, he After staring at the stone for a few times, I felt that it was a bit unremarkable, but I couldn't tell whether it was good or bad in itself. After all, Chen Lin was not a top scientific researcher, so he could only come here to look at it. It’s just a lively event, and the specific operations still need to be handled by on-site professionals.
In a few minutes, the mineral experts from the laboratory and a group of temporarily transferred personnel hurried over. Dozens of people at the scene were kicked out. Unfortunately, Chen Lin could only Waiting for news outside, he simply sat on the sofa in the lounge nearby and waited for the test results to come out.
After more than three hours of tossing, just before 12 o'clock, the various elite scientific researchers who were transferred to it finally walked out of the laboratory. Many waiting staff hurriedly I gathered together, hoping to find something different.
“It is indeed a very special mineral, and we found something good this time.”
The leading researcher made a slight noise, and everyone looked happy. After looking at each other, they couldn't wait to let the researcher continue.
“This thing should be some kind of special photosynthetic mineral. The properties we initially discovered are correct. It can indeed convert light energy into chemical energy and store it, and it can also release energy. Inside the photosynthetic mineral , the stored energy can be released through specific catalytic reactions, providing stable energy for the equipment.”
“We simply tested it and found that only a very small part of this thing is stored and released, and the conversion efficiency is high. Amazing! ”
“What’s even more amazing is that this mineral seems to have the ability to grow by itself. The self-growth ability of the ore allows them to grow gradually over time under appropriate conditions, forming more Large ores mainly absorb impurities in sea water or air... In this way, this ore can be regarded as having a purifying function."
"This kind of ore is purified due to its growth. The environmental function is also turned on simultaneously, which can absorb surrounding pollutants and exhaust gases and convert them into harmless substances..."
Everyone looked happy. This discovery was not small. The amount of metal minerals on Blue Sea Star itself was very impressive. Although it had not been mined on a large scale, the reserves were here.
However, those are all conventional mineral materials. What the staff working at the Qinglong Base are looking forward to most is to discover all kinds of magical minerals and metals like the Origin Star did at the beginning, so as to make enough to make the entire association Shocking scientific research results!
Now this magical photosynthetic mineral has given them hope.
If it is used as an energy material in the next stage, then photosynthetic ore can be used as a high-efficiency energy material to drive high-tech equipment such as spacecraft and robots; if it is used as an environmental protection device, the purification function of photosynthetic ore can be used to develop Environmentally friendly devices, such as air purifiers, water treatment equipment and other devices, are even completely natural and pollution-free!
Not to mention the miraculous effects that this thing will have in biomedicine, agricultural applications, scientific research tools, etc.
A group of people cheered for a while before stopping. Chen Lin, the person who led the scientific research team, did not know him, but he was equally happy after hearing about the magical properties of this kind of photosynthetic mineral material, but he was still curious about this thing. If the mining environment in the place where it is discovered is also harsh, wouldn't it be a problem?
The small-scale mining of minerals on Blue Sea Star still uses the same process on Earth - using giant mining operation motherships to mine heavy-duty mining materials that weigh hundreds of tons and can withstand low temperatures and ultra-high water pressure. The machine sinks to the designated area to carry out excavation operations, transports the minerals to the mother ship through long pipelines for processing, initially extracts the necessary parts, and then transports the waste back to the seabed, and so on.
For convenience, Qinglong Base needs to arrange for Fuxi to control intelligent machines to go down to the deepest seabed to perform auxiliary work. These improved intelligent machines must be several hundred tons at most, otherwise they will not be able to carry the water deep under the sea. Limiting factors such as pressure and buoyancy.
The one at the forefront is called the "auxiliary cutting machine". It is equipped with a long mechanical arm, and the end of the arm is equipped with a special steel gear that can cut through rocks.
Following the stage is the "main cutting machine", which is equipped with a wide and powerful cutting drum made of special steel alloy to crush the target ore.
The last one is the "intelligent collection machine", which absorbs seawater and mud through internal pipelines, and transmits these materials to the mother ship on the sea surface through a riser system.
The cost of minerals extracted through this pipeline is quite high, so these small-scale mining only targets high-value mineral materials. General seabed mineral raw materials basically do not use this integrated device. After all, part of the seabed The cost of extracting mineral materials to the sea is at least 3-5 times that of mining on the Origin Star.
At this time, the Red Dragon Association was very wealthy and always had to consider cost-effectiveness.
(End of this chapter)