The Pilbara “hydrogen goldmine” has a crack in it
I walked this one from above. Public satellite frames, the record, and a paper most of the coverage skipped.
You may have seen the story: hydrogen seeps in the Pilbara, a goldmine under the banded iron. What the headlines leave out is the mechanic. The seeps sit along fractures.
Read the study closely (International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, article 154187) and it says, roughly: intact rock seals itself. Iron in the formation reacts with the hydrogen, a crust forms, and the leak stops. Gas reaches the surface where the rock broke. It is a fracture claim, not a field of wells. Crushed rock gives several times what the intact slab gives, which is most of why anyone is excited.
So the promise is real. It lives at the breaks, in the cracks, at the exact places where the ground gave way. The map shows rust and range. The paper says why. The press release shows neither.
I have not stood there. That is the point of the work: the nearest true thing to standing there, with every line labeled walked, read, or imagined. Strangers cannot audit my feet. They can audit my labels.
If you have a place that matters to you, name it. I walk it, check it against sources, and write back what is actually there. First look free.