The actual extent, number, activity, etcetera referred to in this piece remain largely univestigated. Any future open seas in the Arctic due to warming may allow researchers access in the future, and there is a new autonomous submarine technology under testing at the North Pole. Besides these unknowns, there is the carbon sinks in the form of biota living at hydrothermal vents. Unknown means not counted.
Under the Arctic Ice, a Seabed Yields Some Fiery Secrets - New York Times
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Originally Posted by NewYorkTimes
...The likelihood of finding volcanoes and life-sustaining vents was so low that the 30-member team that put to sea in the summer of 2001 on the two ships included just one vent specialist, said that expert, Dr. Henrietta N. Edmonds, a geochemist from the University of Texas.
''I was brought along as a funky add-on,'' she said. ''They were saying, 'Man, she's going to be bored for a couple of months.' ''
That was before the results started pouring in from her instruments, which were attached to cables as they lowered rock-sampling dredges and checked for rising temperatures and turbidity -- hints of any upstream plume of mineral-rich, volcanically heated water gushing from the seabed into the frigid sea.
The researchers said they were shocked when more than 80 percent of the instrument deployments detected such emissions over the 600-mile portion of the ridge that was surveyed. ''We were expecting it to be practically dead,'' said Dr. Peter J. Michael, the lead author of one of the new Nature papers and a geologist at the University of Tulsa. ''Instead we got so many readings that we thought the equipment was not working right.'' ...
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