SCIENTISTS have been left baffled after a mysterious element was discovered in ancient lava – leading to theories that the Earth’s core is leaking.
Research into 62-million-year-old lava flows on Baffin Island in Canada’s Arctic archipelago has revealed unusually high levels of helium-3 – a rare isotope associated with our planet’s interior.
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Scientists believe that the Earth’s core is leaking
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Investigation of 62-million-year-old lava flows on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago has revealed unusually high levels of helium-3
The discovery was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday and has sparked a massive debate among fellow researchers and experts.
A combined team of geochemists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the California Institute of Technology has read the ancient lava flows of Baffin Island.
The large land mass contains the highest ratios of helium-3, helium-4, and a third isotope ever found in Earth’s volcanic rocks.
The research team noted that finding such high levels of helium-3 in a terrestrial location is a big deal.
Due to its nature, helium-3 is very rare.
As soon as it breaks through to the surface, it escapes into the atmosphere and disappears into space.
If it is found on the surface, there is a good chance that it has come out of the core.
If helium-3 comes from the core, then there should be other material around it – offering further physical examples of core material.
As a result, the recent discoveries could overturn what scientists previously knew about the Earth’s core, which was thought to be closed.
If it can be proven that material is indeed leaking from the core, it will allow scientists a way of studying core material that has never been done before.
This primordial helium-3 may hold secrets about the formation of our planet that cannot be accessed by other means.
“We know very little about the Earth’s core, other than that it exists,” Forrest Horton, a geochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told VICE.
“This makes studying the core both intriguing and frustrating.
“Traditionally, it has been assumed that the core and outer layers of our planet (mantle and crust) are geochemically isolated (ie, material is not transported back and forth).
“Scientists are increasingly challenging this idea.”
Horton adds that the “exciting” discovery suggests that the deep Earth is more dynamic than first thought.
However, the geochemist claims that the research is far from over and that his team’s discoveries have created an entirely new dynamic.
“In many ways, our study raises more questions than it answers, so there’s a lot of work to be done,” he said.
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Further evidence of leakage from the Earth’s core is provided in a report by scientists in the journal NatureCredit: Nature
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education