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Cited by 274

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 32 of the 32 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Radiolytic H2 in continental crust: Nuclear power for deep subsurface microbial communities

Open access
Lin, Li‐Hung, Hall, James, Lippmann‐Pipke, Johanna, Ward, Julie A., Sherwood Lollar, Barbara, DeFlaun, Mary, Rothmel, Randi, Moser, Duane, Gihring, Thomas M., Mislowack, Bianca, Onstott, T. C.·2005·Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems

Abstract

H 2 is probably the most important substrate for terrestrial subsurface lithoautotrophic microbial communities. Abiotic H 2 generation is an essential component of subsurface ecosystems truly independent of surface photosynthesis. Here we report that H 2 concentrations in fracture water collected from deep siliclastic and volcanic rock units in the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa, ranged up to two molar, a value far greater than observed in shallow aquifers or marine sediments. The high H 2 concentrations are consistent with that predicted by radiolytic dissociation of H 2 O during radioactive decay of U, Th, and K in the host rock and the observed He concentrations. None of the other known H 2‐generating mechanisms can account for such high H 2 abundance either because of the positive free energy imposed by the high H 2 concentration or pH or because of the absence of required mineral phases. The radiolytic H 2 is consumed by methanogens and abiotic hydrocarbon synthesis. Our calculations indicate that radiolytic H 2 production is a ubiquitous and virtually limitless source of energy for deep crustal chemolithoautotrophic ecosystems.

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Crossref · 10.1029/2004gc000907

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Metadata

Authors
Lin, L., Hall, J., Lippmann‐Pipke, J., Ward, J. A., Sherwood Lollar, B., DeFlaun, M., Rothmel, R., Moser, D., Gihring, T. M., Mislowack, B., & Onstott, T. C.
Venue
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
Published
2005-07
Volume
6
Issue
7
ISSN
1525-2027 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1614550045
Cited by
274
References
32
FWCI
5.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Radiolytic H2 in continental crust: Nuclear power for deep subsurface microbial communities. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1029/2004gc000907
The paper
Lin, L., Hall, J., Lippmann‐Pipke, J., Ward, J. A., Sherwood Lollar, B., DeFlaun, M., Rothmel, R., Moser, D., Gihring, T. M., Mislowack, B., & Onstott, T. C. (2005). Radiolytic H2 in continental crust: Nuclear power for deep subsurface microbial communities. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. https://doi.org/10.1029/2004gc000907

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.