Even if it was deep underground, how did 46 million tons of hydrogen not find anything to react with?
Temperature supposedly 72 to 87 degrees higher than surface at 4,000 feet below. This increases reactivity.
Same reason underground deposits of oil and (highly flammable!) methane "don't find anything to react with."
Temperature supposedly 72 to 87 degrees higher than surface at 4,000 feet below. This increases reactivity.
Take a vessel filled with pure hydrogen gas. Now throw some basalt, quartz, hornblende, and whatever other common minerals you have lying about (or which are commonly found at 4,000 ft below the Earth's surface) into the vessel. Heck: Add some pure oxygen gas, if you please!
Now raise the temperature to 400 °F. What do you think will happen?
Answer: Nothing!
Or maybe think of it this way: There may have initially been far more hydrogen in this deposit - maybe a hundred times as much! - but over the eons, 99% of it reacted with other substances to form inert compounds, leaving only this paltry 46 million tons of hydrogen gas behind for us to "discover!"
Regards,