Overview
- ROV surveys at 3,640 meters on the Greenland Sea’s Molloy Ridge documented exposed gas-hydrate mounds with active methane and oil seepage.
- Water-column gas flares rose about 3,300 meters, ranking among the tallest recorded and highlighting vigorous carbon transport from the seabed.
- Geochemical evidence indicates thermogenic methane and crude oil likely derived from Miocene plant material migrating upward over long timescales.
- Dense chemosynthetic fauna—including tubeworms, snails, and amphipods—show family-level overlap with Arctic hydrothermal-vent communities.
- Researchers observed mound formation, destabilization, and collapse, and they call for protections as interest in Arctic resource extraction grows; the findings are published in Nature Communications.