Earth’s core may be leaking helium very slowly, studies are underway to find out why

Helium, the second-most common element in the universe, is astonishingly scarce on Earth, and its origins have remained a mystery for scientists. However, scientists believe that the Earth’s core is leaking helium.

This scarcity is primarily because helium is nonrenewable on our planet, making it increasingly challenging to obtain. Extracted from natural gas deposits within the Earth’s crust, the dwindling reservoirs are becoming a growing concern.

The extraction process primarily involves accessing helium that forms as natural gas rises through the Earth’s layers, eventually diffusing into the atmosphere. However, the exact quantity of helium remaining on Earth remains uncertain, raising questions about its source. It is theorized that helium has not entirely vanished over billions of years, potentially implying that the Earth’s core might be leaking helium from undiscovered, more enormous reserves.

A team of scientists from the California Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has recently conducted research shedding light on this helium mystery. Their study focused on samples collected from lava fields in Canada’s Baffin Islands and Iceland, revealing mysteriously similar concentrations of helium isotopes. This finding suggests a common underground source slowly releasing helium over time.

The implications of this discovery are profound, offering a glimpse into the Earth’s early history and a significant opportunity to explore the planet’s deeply concealed core.

Published in  Nature, the research posits that this shared source likely originates within the Earth’s core. The scientists considered the presence of other noble gases, including neon, which aligns with conditions that prevailed during Earth’s formation billions of years ago.

If these findings prove accurate, they could provide invaluable insights into the processes and conditions that shaped our planet during its infancy. Importantly, it opens a window into the Earth’s core, a highly inaccessible region buried under thousands of miles of rock and liquid metal.

While much about Earth’s composition remains unknown, this discovery represents a crucial puzzle in unraveling the mysteries of our planet’s formation and early history. As scientists continue to investigate and analyze these findings, they hope to gain a deeper understanding of Earth’s origins and the processes that shaped it.