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Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

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Figure 12: TOBI sidescan sonar image of a volcanically active segment centre on the<br />

Mid-Atlantic Ridge at approximately 38 degrees North, near the Azores Triple<br />

Junction.<br />

By contrast, Figure 13 shows the intensely fractured seafloor which<br />

hosts the Rainbow hydrothermal field at 36°15’N, a deposit that extends<br />

approximately 100m x 300m across the seabed and which, best recent<br />

estimates indicate, has been maintaining its current rate of hydrothermal<br />

discharge (the single largest source of hydrothermal activity currently known<br />

throughout the North Atlantic Ocean) throughout the past 18,000 years [23].<br />

Clearly, such markedly different sidescan images may prove that<br />

hydrothermal plume signals may be expected to host respectively small or<br />

large individual seafloor hydrothermal sulphides deposits.<br />

INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 395

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