I was under the strong impression that sea floor mining was mostly invented as cover by the CIA to operate the Glomar Explorer for the purpose of retrieving a c

I was under the strong impression that sea floor mining was mostly invented as cover by the CIA to operate the Glomar Explorer for the purpose of retrieving a crashed Soviet submarine with nuclear warheads on board. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_Explorer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_Explorer The US petitioned the UN to open up international sea floor mining rights as part of the lead up for this project. They made up a fake educational film for high schoolers about Glomar as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXUqUpfzgxQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXUqUpfzgxQ