First though that hits me is how far from shore are these vents typically? I subspect that most of the areas are in international waters... meaning it will either be required to annex further and futher out to sea... Which will start seaborn territorial wars, which will spread onto land, mainly starting with costal areas... or somehow end up creating an internation governmental body to control the things, which will end up weaseling its way into more and more control over international waters. To the point that it will start making its on tarrifs on shipping to go with the import fees for using 'international' resources.
That and the vents in question are likely be damaged badly from an ecological stand point. We are talking about sticking a stopper into parts of an exotic ecosystem and even if the real impact is marginal, negliable, or flat out fictional you'll have Enviromentalist wackos making up stuff about the horrible things it will do to damage the Earth. Which will result in ecoterrorists cutting the lines with explosives, a new group of lobbists trying for the banishment of the tech and/or new laws making the once cheap power rather expensive... or we are back to that massive government of the seas thing.
A map of Plate Techtonics shows the areas where this is usefully possible. The Western coasts of the Americas are notable as viable areas, as is the area around northern South America and the Caribean. As are Nothern Africa and of course it rings the polically fun middle east (like around western Isreal).Then for more fun we have a bit of uncontested viable area above Sibera... and then areas east of China like the Koreas and Japan... and the island nations right under it. So China will likely declare Japan and random island nations now part of China and that will be a hot spot of wars and intrege. New Zeland will likely be mostly left alone annexation wise, though this could give it a major energy trade with its neighbors. Another area of intrest for the fallout is Iceland... a land that is bisected by a continental plate and as of a few months ago has literally no military presence whatsoever.
That and the vents in question are likely be damaged badly from an ecological stand point. We are talking about sticking a stopper into parts of an exotic ecosystem and even if the real impact is marginal, negliable, or flat out fictional you'll have Enviromentalist wackos making up stuff about the horrible things it will do to damage the Earth. Which will result in ecoterrorists cutting the lines with explosives, a new group of lobbists trying for the banishment of the tech and/or new laws making the once cheap power rather expensive... or we are back to that massive government of the seas thing.
A map of Plate Techtonics shows the areas where this is usefully possible. The Western coasts of the Americas are notable as viable areas, as is the area around northern South America and the Caribean. As are Nothern Africa and of course it rings the polically fun middle east (like around western Isreal).Then for more fun we have a bit of uncontested viable area above Sibera... and then areas east of China like the Koreas and Japan... and the island nations right under it. So China will likely declare Japan and random island nations now part of China and that will be a hot spot of wars and intrege. New Zeland will likely be mostly left alone annexation wise, though this could give it a major energy trade with its neighbors. Another area of intrest for the fallout is Iceland... a land that is bisected by a continental plate and as of a few months ago has literally no military presence whatsoever.