Friday, 7 March 2025

Is There Helium in the Core?

 Is There Helium in the Core?

A correspondent sent me THIS LINK which seems to link three opposites. Helium is a very light noble gas which does not mix with anything, iron is a metal and the earths core is hot, pressurised and a long way away. But there are hints that all is not as one assumes!

The rare (at the Earths surface) form of helium is He-3 (2 protons, one neutron) is found during volcanic eruptions. Where did it come from? Is it left over from the Big Bang? 

In normal circumstances you can find a few parts per million of helium in iron. The experimenters decided to look at conditions similar to those of the Earth' core. For this they used a laser heated diamond anvil cell. And found that they could get 3.3% helium into iron.

If this is what actually happens in the core it has implications for what happened as the Earth formed. And it may mean that the helium from volcanic action came from the core and not from, as yet unfound, reservoirs. What I find mind boggling is the scaling up from tiny experimental quantities to the Earth's core!