On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 2:51 PM, Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> wrote:
http://www.ibtimes.com/helium-yellowstone-national-park-way-more-ancient-element-escaping-expected-1556898 Very cool find. In this case they're guessing that alpha decay from uranium and other alpha emitters is causing the high levels of 4He. Sometimes one hears that the temperature of the Earth's core is maintained by radioisotopes such as uranium. I'm beginning to wonder whether this is another fudge, this time by geologists going to their nuclear physicist colleagues, who can only hazard a guess. How much uranium would be needed to maintain a molten iron-nickel core? (Note the the part about nickel.) Eric
