Abstract Using an interdisciplinary approach, this paper reviews current knowledge in the field of natural hydrogen. For the first time, it combines perspectives on hydrogen from the literature of the former Eastern bloc with that of the West, including rare hardcopies and recent studies. Data are summarized and classified in three main sections: hydrogen as a free gas in different environments, as inclusions in various rock types, and as dissolved gas in ground water. This review conclusively demonstrates that molecular hydrogen is much more widespread in nature than was previously thought. Hydrogen has been detected at high concentrations, often as the major gas, in all types of geologic environment. A critical evaluation of all the proposed mechanisms regarding the origin of natural hydrogen shows that a deep-seated origin is potentially the most likely explanation for its abundance in nature. By combining available data, an estimate of 23 Tg/year for the total annual flow of hydrogen from geologic sources is proposed. This value is an order of magnitude greater than previous estimate but most likely still not large enough to account for recently discovered worldwide diffusive seepages. Hydrogen could play a critical role in mechanisms taking place in both the shallow and deep geospheres and it can influence a very wide range of natural phenomena. Hydrogen is an essential energy source for many microorganisms. Sampling for hydrogen can be a useful tool in studying natural environments, geologic mapping, monitoring of earthquakes, plotting fault traces and resource exploration. Hydrogen of geologic origin has the potential to become the renewable energy source of the future, with exploratory projects ongoing at the present time. The topic of natural hydrogen is therefore relevant from many different perspectives.

中文翻译：

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天然氢的发生与地球科学：综合评述

摘要 本文采用跨学科的方法，回顾了天然氢领域的现有知识。它首次将前东方集团的文献中对氢的观点与西方的文献相结合，包括罕见的硬拷贝和最近的研究。数据被总结并分为三个主要部分：氢气在不同环境中作为游离气体，在各种岩石类型中作为包裹体，在地下水中作为溶解气体。这篇综述最终证明分子氢在自然界中比以前认为的要广泛得多。已在所有类型的地质环境中检测到高浓度氢气，通常作为主要气体。对有关天然氢起源的所有拟议机制的批判性评估表明，深层起源可能是其在自然界中的丰度的最可能解释。通过结合现有数据，建议地质来源的氢气年总流量估计为 23 Tg/年。该值比之前的估计值大一个数量级，但很可能仍不足以解释最近发现的全球扩散渗流。氢可以在浅层和深层地圈发生的机制中发挥关键作用，它可以影响非常广泛的自然现象。氢是许多微生物必不可少的能源。氢采样可以成为研究自然环境、地质测绘、地震监测、绘制故障轨迹和资源勘探。地质来源的氢有潜力成为未来的可再生能源，目前正在进行探索性项目。因此，天然氢的主题从许多不同的角度都是相关的。