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Updated: Aug 11, 2025

Dynamic Pore-scale Reservoir-condition Imaging of Reaction in Carbonates Using Synchrotron Fast Tomography
Published on: February 21, 2017
Discovery of supercritical carbon dioxide in a hydrothermal system
Xin Zhang1, Lian-Fu Li2, Zeng-Feng Du3
1Key Labortory of Marine Geology and Environment & Center of Deep Sea Research, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China; Laboratory for Marine Geology, Pilot Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao 266061, China; Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.
Abstract:
Supercritical CO2 appearing as bubbles in hydrothermal vents was identified in the south part of the Okinawa Trough using in situ Raman spectroscopy. Significantly, the N2 peak in supercritical CO2 is much larger than those in seawater and vent fluids, indicating that supercritical CO2 enriches N2 from the surrounding environment. Considering that the partial pressures of CO2 and N2 in the Earth's proto-atmosphere were ~10-20 MPa, supercritical CO2 with high N2 was likely the dominant CO2 phase near the water-air interface in the early history of the Earth, which promoted the synthesis, pre-enrichment and preservation of amino acids and other organic matters that are essential to the origin of life.
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