Assessment of Natural Hydrogen Prospectivity in the JeJu Basin, Northern East China Sea

Assessment of Natural Hydrogen Prospectivity in the JeJu Basin, Northern East China Sea | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Assessment of Natural Hydrogen Prospectivity in the JeJu Basin, Northern East China Sea Juhwan Woo, Chul Woo Rhee, Seungyeol Lee This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8171842/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The northern East China Sea Shelf Basin records a complex history of Mesozoic–Cenozoic tectonism and volcanism. This study focuses on the Hupijiao Rise and Jeju Basin, where seismic and geochemical data acquired for hydrocarbon exploration. We assessed natural hydrogen potential by integrating AI-driven seismic interpretation with geochemical and petrophysical analyses. Specifically, we examined fracture zones in the crystalline basement and analyzed kerogen composition to investigate generation mechanisms. The fractured basement is well developed in the study area. NNE–SSW striking faults are predominant; dip azimuths within the sedimentary basin are clustered between 11.25° and 45°. More variable orientations are observed in the volcanic structural high. Elemental analysis of kerogen from cuttings in two wells revealed hydrogen contents ranging from 1.49–5.93 wt% in Well A and 2.04–5.89 wt% in Well B, indicating heterogeneity in thermal maturity and organic facies. The granite intervals identified from well logs exhibit elevated neutron log responses. These results suggest that the volcanic uplift and Hupijiao Rise provide favorable structural and geochemical conditions for natural hydrogen generation and migration, and they offer a basis for future exploration in offshore East Asian rift basins. Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Solid earth sciences Natural hydrogen fractured basement Radiolysis AI-based seismic interpretation East China Sea Shelf Basin Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8171842","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":556499783,"identity":"4a91e7e0-360f-4964-96ec-e365040a7f40","order_by":0,"name":"Juhwan Woo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Chungbuk National University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Juhwan","middleName":"","lastName":"Woo","suffix":""},{"id":556499784,"identity":"12d13916-5f55-4f73-8dce-a0b4c94e2172","order_by":1,"name":"Chul Woo Rhee","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Chungbuk National 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Sea","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Natural hydrogen, fractured basement, Radiolysis, AI-based seismic interpretation, East China Sea Shelf Basin","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8171842/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8171842/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe northern East China Sea Shelf Basin records a complex history of Mesozoic\u0026ndash;Cenozoic tectonism and volcanism. This study focuses on the Hupijiao Rise and Jeju Basin, where seismic and geochemical data acquired for hydrocarbon exploration. We assessed natural hydrogen potential by integrating AI-driven seismic interpretation with geochemical and petrophysical analyses. Specifically, we examined fracture zones in the crystalline basement and analyzed kerogen composition to investigate generation mechanisms. The fractured basement is well developed in the study area. NNE\u0026ndash;SSW striking faults are predominant; dip azimuths within the sedimentary basin are clustered between 11.25\u0026deg; and 45\u0026deg;. More variable orientations are observed in the volcanic structural high. Elemental analysis of kerogen from cuttings in two wells revealed hydrogen contents ranging from 1.49\u0026ndash;5.93 wt% in Well A and 2.04\u0026ndash;5.89 wt% in Well B, indicating heterogeneity in thermal maturity and organic facies. The granite intervals identified from well logs exhibit elevated neutron log responses. These results suggest that the volcanic uplift and Hupijiao Rise provide favorable structural and geochemical conditions for natural hydrogen generation and migration, and they offer a basis for future exploration in offshore East Asian rift basins.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Assessment of Natural Hydrogen Prospectivity in the JeJu Basin, Northern East China Sea","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-12-11 14:45:40","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8171842/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"97ed58cf-6270-4eee-a81f-4c37c35f8a81","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 11th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":59227975,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences"},{"id":59227976,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Solid earth sciences"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-22T08:26:00+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-12-11 14:45:40","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8171842","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8171842","identity":"rs-8171842","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}