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Researchers Claim Earth's Inner Core Is Leaking and Releasing Noble Gases

Researchers have found helium isotope ratios in Baffin's lava fields, and believe that this is leaking from Earth's inner core.
PUBLISHED OCT 5, 2024
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Representative Photo by FPM
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Representative Photo by FPM

Earth's Leaking Inner Core

Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by Pixabay
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by Pixabay

Earth's core remains an elusive phenomenon for experts due to its difficult location. To this date, humans do not have the technology to reach the core physically, but remain dedicated to expanding their knowledge about the structure, CNN reported. A study published in Nature revealed that the Earth's core is not as stable as researchers previously thought. Experts analyzed the elements found in Canada’s Baffin Island and concluded that the core has been leaking for more than a millennium. This study gave researchers a clearer picture of the constituents that make the core, and how they were involved in the creation of Earth. 

Discovery of Unexpected Helium Isotope Ratios

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons/Photo by Kelvinsong (Diagram of the Earth)
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons/Photo by Kelvinsong (Diagram of the Earth)

Several years ago, Forrest Horton, a geochemist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, discovered unexpected helium isotope ratios (the ratio of helium-3 (³He) to helium-4 (⁴He)) in samples of olivine collected from Baffin's lava fields, Science Alert reported. The helium isotope ratio in the olivine was 50 times more than what is usually found in the atmosphere. "At the most basic level, there is little 3He (helium-3) in the universe compared to 4He (helium-4)," Forrest Horton said, CNN reported. "3He is rare in Earth because it has not been produced in or added to the planet in significant quantities and it is lost to space," Horton added. "As Earth’s rocky portion stirs and convects like hot water on a stovetop, material ascends, cools, and sinks. During the cooling stage, helium is lost to the atmosphere and then to space." This unusual concentration of 3He was also noted in lavas collected from Iceland, an area that is known for being a distinct conveyor belt of mantle activity. Horton and his team speculated that both areas could have received their helium from an ancient reservoir adjacent to the mantle.

The Helium Ratio

Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by MART PRODUCTION
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by MART PRODUCTION

In the 2023 study, researchers examined several olivine samples taken from dozens of sheltered sites across Baffin and surrounding islands, Science Alert reported. From the samples, the experts recovered the highest ratio of 3He to 4He ever recorded in volcanic rock. The helium isotope ratio was nearly 70 times the atmospheric levels. Considering the ratios of other isotopes, including strontium and neodymium, the team ruled out the reasoning that they might be responsible for altering the identity of helium in the samples. The ratio of isotopes of another noble gas, neon also fascinated the experts, as they discovered that its measurement was similar to how it was during the formation of Earth.

A Reservoir of Noble Gases

Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by Pixabay
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by Pixabay

Scientists traced the neon and helium in the samples to the core, Science Alert reported. The study claims that helium inherited by the Earth during the solar nebula likely became locked in the core, making the structure a reservoir of noble gases. Over the millenniums, the helium-3 began leaking from the core and later ascended to the surface through the mantle in the form of magma plumes that eventually erupted on Baffin Island. "During the eruption, the vast majority of the gases in the magma escaped to the atmosphere," Horton explained, CNN reported. "Only the olivine crystals that grew prior to eruption trapped and preserved the helium from the deep Earth." The researchers have yet to pinpoint the time when the leaking began but are sure that it started 100 million years ago or possibly much earlier.

Affect on the Planet

Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by christian buehner
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by christian buehner

As per experts, the helium leaking from the core does not affect the planet in any shape or form, CNN reported. The noble gas also doesn't chemically interact with matter and does not affect humanity. The next objective for researchers is to investigate whether there are other light elements present in the core. "Is the core a major repository of elements like carbon and hydrogen, which are so important in terms of planetary habitability? If so, have fluxes of these elements from the core over (Earth’s) history influenced planetary evolution? I am excited to investigate links between helium and other light elements," Horton said. "Perhaps helium can be used to track other elements across the core-mantle boundary."

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