Mechanism diagram showing the explosion process to form the pipe swarm in hydrothermal system.

Researchers discover massive geo-hydrogen source to the west of the Mussau Trench

phys.org/Chinese Academy of Sciences | September 5, 2025

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the solar system. As a source of clean energy, hydrogen is well-suited for sustainable development, and Earth is a natural hydrogen factory. However, most hydrogen vents reported to date are small, and the geological processes responsible for hydrogen formation -- as well as the quantities that can be preserved in geological settings -- remain unclear.

To better understand the availability of geological hydrogen, researchers from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) and their collaborators discovered and analyzed a large pipe swarm -- a cluster of cylindrical geological structures -- with remnants of hydrogen hydrothermal activity on the east Caroline Plate, west of the Mussau Trench.

The Mussau Trench is a fossil trench, meaning it is an ancient (started about 25 million years ago) and now inactive trench that ceased tectonic activity. The newly discovered pipe swarm, named "Kunlun," consists of pipes with diameters ranging from 450 to 1,800 meters.

The study was published in Science Advances...

According to Prof. Xiao Yuanyuan, first author of the study, the results suggest a potentially huge amount of hydrogen may have been formed deep in the ocean lithospheric mantle. "It could be economically mineable in the future," said Prof. Xiao...more

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-massive-geo-hydrogen-source-west.html

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