Global hydrogen reservoirs in basement and basins

Geochemical Transactions

Research Article

John Parnell¹  Nigel Blamey² 

[1] School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, Aberdeen, UK;School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, Aberdeen, UK;Department of Earth Sciences, Brock University, 500 Glenridge Avenue, L2S 3A1, St. Catharines, ON, Canada;

关键词: Hydrogen;    Granites;    Fluid inclusions;    Deep biosphere;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12932-017-0041-4

 received in 2017-01-12, accepted in 2017-03-14,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundHydrogen is known to occur in the groundwaters of some ancient cratons. Where associated gases have been dated, their age extends up to a billion years, and the hydrogen is assumed also to be very old. These observations are interpreted to represent the radiolysis of water and hydration reactions and migration of hydrogen into fracture systems. A hitherto untested implication is that the overwhelming bulk of the ancient low-permeability basement, which is not adjacent to cross-cutting fractures, constitutes a reservoir for hydrogen.ResultsNew data obtained from cold crushing to liberate volatiles from fluid inclusions confirm that granites and gneiss of Archean and Palaeoproterozoic (>1600 Ma) age typically contain an order of magnitude greater hydrogen in their entrained fluid than very young (<200 Ma) granites. Sedimentary rocks containing clasts of old basement also include a greater proportion of hydrogen than the young granites.ConclusionsThe data support the case for a global reservoir of hydrogen in both the ancient basement and in the extensive derived sediments. These reservoirs are susceptible to the release of hydrogen through a variety of mechanisms, including deformation, attrition to reduce grain size and diagenetic alteration, thereby contributing to the hydrogen required by chemolithoautotrophs in the deep biosphere.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2017