Identifying reliable geochemical signals that reflect crustal stress evolution remains a major challenge in earthquake monitoring. Spring fluids, due to their deep circulation and rapid response, provide an important window into fault-zone processes. This study presents three years (May 2022–March 2025) of hourly hydrogen gas (H2) concentration monitoring in spring gases from the Muji Basin on the northern Pamir Plateau, integrated with meteorological and seismic data. H2 concentrations exhibited a stable diurnal pattern, positively correlated with water and air temperatures and negatively correlated with atmospheric pressure. Short-term anomalies during seismically quiet periods may reflect a combination of temperature-dependent solubility effects and transient degassing caused by localized gas accumulation and sudden release under heterogeneous fault and aquifer conditions. During seismically active phases, sustained increases in H2 concentrations were also recorded; however, such anomalies did not consistently precede earthquakes, instead reflecting broader phases of tectonic instability and episodic fault-zone degassing. These findings highlight the potential of long-term H2 monitoring to improve our understanding of the coupling between crustal stress, fluid transport, and degassing processes in tectonically active regions.
The Raobazhai ultramafic complex is located in the north of the Dabie Mountains and is composed of spinel peridotites accompanied by a few lenticular mafic metamorphic rocks. The spinel peridotites are mostly harzburgite, along with minor dunite and lherzolite. This study reports the petrological, geochemical, and Re-Os isotopic data of spinel and chromite harzburgites from Raobazhai. The major and trace whole-rock geochemistry characteristics indicate that the rocks are remnants of partial melting to different degrees (6–17%). Both mineral and whole-rock geochemistry showed typical abyssal peridotite affinity. Due to the presence of water-bearing minerals, the Sr, Ba, and U were enriched, and the Nb, Zr, and Hf were depleted, which can be attributed to the strong metasomatism of the boninitic melting/fluid in the fore-arc domain. The flat distribution of platinum group elements (PGE) and the decoupling of Pt-Pd were also the result of the fore-arc melting/fluid interaction. The 187Os/188Os ratios (0.1149–0.1266) were generally lower than the recommended value of the primitive mantle and fell within the abyssal peridotite isotope range. This indicated that the Raobazhai harzburgites were likely mantle peridotites with oceanic characteristics that underwent a fore-arc boninitic melting/fluid transformation event.