Earth’s Core May Hold 45 Times More Hydrogen Than All the Oceans Combined — What It Means for the Future of Clean Energy

A groundbreaking study published in Nature Communications reshapes our understanding of planetary hydrogen — and why the hydrogen economy matters more than ever.

When most people think about hydrogen on Earth, they think about water. After all, every molecule of H₂O contains two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom, and the planet’s oceans hold roughly 150 quintillion kilograms of hydrogen. But a landmark study published on February 11, 2026, in Nature Communications reveals that our oceans may represent only a fraction of Earth’s total hydrogen inventory. According to researchers led by geoscientist Dongyang Huang at Peking University, the planet’s iron-alloy core could harbor up to 45 times more hydrogen than all of Earth’s ocean water — potentially making it the single largest hydrogen reservoir on the planet.

Simulated Cores: How the Discovery Was Made

Because no technology exists to physically sample Earth’s core, the research team recreated core-like conditions in the laboratory using a diamond anvil cell. They compressed a small iron ball encased in hydrated silicate glass to pressures of up to 111 gigapascals while heating the sample to approximately 5,100 kelvins — conditions remarkably close to the estimated 136-gigapascal lower pressure limit and 5,000–6,000-kelvin temperature range of the actual core. At these extremes, the sample liquefied completely, allowing iron, silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen to mix freely, closely mimicking the behavior scientists expect from Earth’s early molten core.

The results were striking. Hydrogen bonded readily with the iron and subsequently with the silicon and oxygen in the mixture. Since seismic wave analysis has long suggested Earth’s core is not pure iron — with an estimated 2 to 10 percent silicon by weight — the team used these parameters to calculate that between 0.07 and 0.36 percent of the core’s total mass consists of hydrogen. Translated into absolute numbers, that equates to between 1.35 and 6.75 sextillion kilograms of hydrogen locked deep beneath our feet, or 9 to 45 times the hydrogen present in all the world’s oceans.

Rewriting the Story of Earth’s Water

The implications extend well beyond a chemistry exercise. If the core sequestered this much hydrogen during planetary formation, it fundamentally changes the narrative about where Earth’s water originated. As Huang’s team notes, such quantities would require Earth to have obtained the majority of its water during the main stages of terrestrial accretion rather than from cometary bombardment during a later period. This challenges a longstanding hypothesis and opens new questions about how water is distributed and recycled within rocky planets over billions of years.

Perhaps most intriguing, if hydrogen and oxygen can migrate into and out of the core over geological time, water may be far more deeply embedded in the planet than surface oceans suggest. And if this process is common among rocky planets, worlds that appear dry from space — including Mars — could harbor hidden water reserves deep in their interiors.

Why This Matters for the Hydrogen Economy

While no one is proposing to drill into Earth’s core to extract hydrogen, this discovery carries powerful symbolic and scientific significance for the burgeoning clean energy sector. It reinforces a growing body of evidence that hydrogen is far more abundant on and within our planet than previously understood — a narrative that aligns with the accelerating interest in geological hydrogen, sometimes called “gold hydrogen” or “white hydrogen,” which is naturally occurring hydrogen found in the Earth’s crust and upper mantle.

Exploration for geological hydrogen has surged in recent years, with active projects across the United States, France, Australia, Mali, and dozens of other countries. In Michigan alone, initiatives focused on geological hydrogen exploration are drawing attention from investors and policymakers eager to diversify clean energy supply chains. The Peking University findings add scientific weight to the argument that Earth is, at its most fundamental level, a hydrogen-rich planet — and that the clean hydrogen resources accessible in the crust may be far more extensive than conservative estimates have suggested.

For hydrogen market participants, the study underscores a critical point: the hydrogen transition is not constrained by elemental scarcity. The challenge remains technological and economic — developing cost-effective methods to produce, transport, and store hydrogen at scale. But the fundamental resource base is vast, and discoveries like this one remind us that we have barely begun to understand the full scope of hydrogen’s presence on our own planet.

Looking Ahead

This research arrives at a moment of rapid acceleration for the global hydrogen economy. Governments are committing billions to hydrogen infrastructure, electrolyzer capacity is scaling dramatically, and geological hydrogen exploration is emerging as a potential game-changer for production costs. The confirmation that Earth’s deepest interior holds staggering quantities of hydrogen adds a new dimension to the conversation about our planet’s relationship with the universe’s most abundant element.

As the hydrogen industry matures, expect discoveries like this to fuel broader public understanding of hydrogen’s central role in both planetary science and the energy transition. The element that powers the sun, forms the basis of water, and now appears to dominate Earth’s core is the same one poised to decarbonize heavy industry, transportation, and power generation in the decades ahead.

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