A robot descended to a depth of nearly 4.000 meters below the Arctic and found a living oasis that changes everything we knew about the ocean floor.
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Key Points:
- The Freya Hydrate Mounds, discovered at 3,640 meters depth in the Greenland Sea during the May 2024 Ocean Census Arctic Deep expedition, represent the deepest cold gas seep ever recorded, with active methane emissions and intense biological communities thriving in extreme Arctic conditions.
- Gas hydrates at Freya contain mainly methane, along with thermogenic hydrocarbons, originating from Miocene-era sediments; methane plumes rise over 3,300 meters, influencing local geology and deep ocean chemistry.
- Over twenty species, including methane- and sulfide-fueled siboglinid tube worms, form a chemosynthesis-based ecosystem in near-freezing waters, challenging previous beliefs about the sterility of deep Arctic basins and linking Freya
