New study suggests Earth's core is leaking

A team of scientists from Caltech and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has made a significant discovery by finding elevated levels of a specific isotope of helium in lava fields in the remote Arctic regions of Baffin Island, Canada, and in Iceland. This finding represents the most compelling evidence to date of a possible gradual escape from our planet’s core.

Although helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, its presence on Earth is relatively scarce due to its tendency to rise into the upper atmosphere and escape into space.. Traditionally, we extract it from natural gas deposits in the Earth’s crust, which form over long periods of time as they move through the Earth’s layers.

The exact amount of helium remaining on Earth has been a persistent mystery. One theory suggests that since helium has not completely disappeared for billions of years, the Earth’s core could be gradually releasing it from even more vast and unknown reserves.

Further evidence of Earth’s core leaking found on #BaffinIsland @nature https://t.co/CqhosUMpTj https://t.co/1at7iy7KjT

— Phys.org (@physorg_com) October 20, 2023

Helium-3 and Helium-4 in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Now, according to reports Science Alert, The team of scientists built on previous research that identified traces of helium-3, a helium isotope especially rare on Earth.a, in ancient lava flows. By studying samples collected from the Baffin Islands, Canada, and Iceland, they found that the ratio of helium-3 to the much more common helium-4 was exceptionally high compared to anywhere else on Earth: 67 times greater than the proportion in the atmosphere.

This anomaly suggests that these isotopes do not come from atmospheric pollutionbut rather from a common underground source that has been slowly releasing helium trapped in the Earth’s core over millions of years.

Furthermore, as detailed in an article published in the magazine Nature, Scientists support their conclusion by observing the presence of other noble gases, such as neon, that coincide with the conditions that existed when the Earth was in the process of formation, billions of years ago.

Ultimately, the scientists posit that, if their hypothesis about the origin of these gases is accurate, other materials in these remote areas may also come from the Earth’s core, which would provide valuable and heretofore inaccessible insight into the Earth’s core.

So, This discovery promises to provide important data on the processes and conditions present at the dawn of our planet’s existence.enriching our understanding of how the Earth formed and, by extension, how planets similar to ours develop.

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