But theoretically, what impact would you anticipate? I feel that the heat will be lost into the environment anyway so it wont eliminate deep sea life.
I'm not saying this work is a bad thing, just that one needs to be pretty careful about it. It's probably a soap box I'm more willing to jump up on being a former marine technician on research ships for many years.
- vent animals don’t live off the heat. They live off the chemistry in the vent fluid
- so changing of vent flow can be disruptiev
- altering fluid chemistry. organisms there live in very tight thermal and chemical gradients, so little changes can be devastating
- Anchors, drill rigs, equipment frames and power cables crush things
- secondary human/machinery pollution from Leaks of a working fluid, if it’s a closed loop using something like ammonia, antifouling coatings and corrosion products.
- subseafloor microbial biosphere
Would love for experts in this field to chime in though. fascinating stuff.