Over 70% of the earth's surface is covered by water. The coastal zone—the boundary between the ocean and land—is under the primary influence of humans, while the rest of the ocean remains fairly remote from human activity. This remoteness has in part led scientists and policy makers to examine the deep ocean, particularly the seabed, as a potential location for waste disposal.

Much of the deep ocean seabed consists of abyssal hills and vast plains that are geologically stable and have sparse numbers of bottom-dwelling organisms. These areas have been characterized as oozes, hundreds of meters thick, that are in effect "deserts" in the sea. Other attributes of the deep ocean seabed that have led scientists and policy makers to consider the sea bottom as a repository for waste include the immobility of the interstitial pore water within the sediment, and the tendency for ions...