A blue flame was precisely ignited by a Chinese-made manipulator 1,522 meters beneath the surface of the South China Sea. This "source flame," derived from combustible ice, captivated the world during the 15th National Games as a stunning visual testament to technological achievement. In October 2025, the National Engineering Research Center of Natural Gas Hydrate Exploration and Development, located in Guangzhou's Nansha District, was declared fully operational, marking China's first national engineering research center in the marine energy sector. These two landmark events together form a powerful testament to Guangdong's strategy of leading future energy development through deep-sea technological innovation.

Behind the harvesting of fire from the deep sea lies over two decades of sustained research and investigation. Crucially, China is the world's first nation to successfully conduct a trial collection of natural gas hydrate (combustible ice) in China's sea areas. With consecutive successful trials in 2017 and 2020, China set world records for both "total gas output" and "daily average output."

Harvesting this deep-sea "source flame" also relied on a complete, independent, and cutting-edge deep-sea equipment system.

The "Haima" deep-sea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) took center stage in the mission, marking a zero-to-one breakthrough for China in the independent development of deep-sea ROVs. The research vessel "Haiyang Dizhi 2 (Ocean Geology 2)", a new multi-functional vessel, served as the platform for collecting and igniting the "source flame". It also served as a support vessel for Mengxiang (Dream), a deep-ocean drilling vessel. Equipped with advanced systems like DP-2 dynamic positioning, it provided highly efficient support for the successful deep-sea "source flame" collection operation.

从“1522米海底采火”看广东科技硬实力丨广货行天下

在1522米水深的南海海底，一束蓝色火焰被中国制造的机械手精准点燃。十五运盛会上，这束取自可燃冰的“源火”，通过荧幕震撼世界。2025年10月，位于广州南沙的天然气水合物勘查开发国家工程研究中心宣告全面建成，这是我国海洋能源领域首个国家工程研究中心。这两大事件，共同构成了广东面向深海、以科技创新引领未来能源发展的时代注脚。

深海取火背后，是20多年持续的调查研究基础。尤为关键的是，中国是全球首个成功进行海域可燃冰试采的国家。2017年与2020年两次试采接连成功，并创造了“产气总量”“日均产气量”等世界纪录。

深海“源火”采集，还立于一套完整、自主、尖端的深海装备体系之上。

“海马”号深海遥控潜水器是此次任务的核心明星，它实现了我国在大深度无人遥控潜水器自主研发领域“零的突破”。执行本次“源火”采集任务的“海洋地质二号”是一艘多功能新型科考船，也是“梦想”号大洋钻探船的保障船，配备DP-2动力定位系统等先进设备，为本次深海“源火”采集作业提供高效实施平台。

文丨记者 董鹏程
翻译丨黄健新
审校丨曾敏