Re:Deep Beneath Earth's Surface, Clues to Life's Origins
by pixl97 on Sunday January 07, 2024 @01:29PM
(#38903737)
If the Earth didn't have a huge internal geological reserve of hydrogen (and other gaseous chemicals) we'd effectively be a dead planet. It's easy to lose hydrogen to space, which is one reason we don't see much of it in the atmosphere. When we start talking about geologic timescales it would lead to the disassociation and lose of almost all atmospheric gasses. Luckily we have the tectonic plate cycle that puts new gasses in the atmosphere and kicks our eventual extinction down the road a bit farther. This also leads to earth shrinking over these very long time periods.
Re:Deep Beneath Earth's Surface, Clues to Life's Origins
by jl6 on Sunday January 07, 2024 @01:56PM
(#38904028)
Let’s hope we don’t find and extract so much subterranean hydrogen that we burn it into water and cause sea level rise.
Re:Deep Beneath Earth's Surface, Clues to Life's Origins
by random_ind_dude on Sunday January 07, 2024 @03:09PM
(#38904664)
It will probably increase the concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere, which will lead to further warming as water vapor absorbs the heat radiated by Earth.
Re:Deep Beneath Earth's Surface, Clues to Life's Origins
by coder543 on Sunday January 07, 2024 @02:28PM
(#38904320)
Don’t forget that oxygen is useful for breathing too. Semi-important, I hear.
ChatGPT estimates that if we converted all of earth’s atmospheric oxygen into water (via burning with hydrogen), ocean levels would rise about 3.7 meters: https://chat.openai.com/share/c9c8ce51-6070-49b6-a092-86e4a4...
I don’t have time to check this math, so take it with a substantial grain of salt.
This is an excellent research overview on the topic of "natural" geologic hydrogen https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00128...
I've also compiled some of my own notes on that paper here which provide some summaries on the multiple fascinating sub-topics. (E.G. hydrogen may be a driver of earthquakes! And we may be able to use hydrogen samples to predict earthquakes! Some predict that there may be even more biomass under the earth driven by sources like hydrogen and methane than there is above ground!) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pnW4HRq6E2up0DhIoxjCyGS6...