As reported in the news source Trst dly, intriguing new research reveals that Earth’s fiery inner core has been leaking precious helium gas for over 2.5 billion years—and scientists suggest it will continue escaping for billions more. This slow leakage seems to confirm theories about our planet’s turbulent early history and offers tantalizing clues into the formation of Earth’s layered structure.
The startling discovery came after scientists analyzed ancient volcanic rocks from Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Within the rocky samples, researchers discovered unusually high concentrations of a rare helium isotope called helium-3. This indicated that the noble gas must have journeyed all the way from the core-mantle boundary to the Earth’s surface through volcanic activity.
“We were totally surprised to find this helium in the Baffin Island lavas,” says geochemist Suzette Timmerman, lead author of the study published recently in Nature Geoscience. “It suggests there’s a pathway from the deep Earth to the surface that we were never aware of before.”
This newly discovered pathway permitted helium to escape the core over billions of years. In fact, researchers estimate the Earth’s inner core has already leaked around 50% of its original helium content since first forming over 4.5 billion years ago. And the process is likely ongoing to this day.
“Now that we know it’s there, we have much better constraints on the timeline of Earth’s formation and on the physics and chemistry operating deep in its interior,” Timmerman explains.
A Glimpse Inside Our Planet
The revelation connects to the reigning model of Earth’s development from a cloud of dust into a layered planet with light elements concentrated in the core and heavier elements nearer the surface.
as particles collided billions of years ago to form larger planetesimals, eventually growing into planets, the energy of impact stuck lighter materials like iron and nickel in cores. Helium, being an ultralight noble gas, remained trapped as well. Thus Earth and other terrestrial worlds formed with an iron inner core surrounded by an outer core composed of molten metals, plus a viscous mantle layer and hardened crust.
Timmerman elaborates, “Giant impacts from other large bodies during planet formation likely added lighter elements to Earth’s core while also triggering whole-scale melting. That produced a magma ocean on the surface.”
The molten surface later slowly cooled and solidified into the modern layered structure we know today. But the new evidence of long-term helium leakage indicates additional complexity hidden below the crust.
Conclusion and Implications
While the inner core remains hotter than the surface of the sun, it seems the crushing pressures are not quite enough to retain helium completely. The gas has been escaping slowly through the lower mantle for eons—riding volcanic updrafts generated by Earth’s residual internal heat. And experts suggest the leakage will continue for a long time coming.
“There appears to be no end in sight,” says Timmerman. “Half the helium may already be gone, but half still remains in the core about 93 million miles below our feet.”
Luckily, the minuscule seepage poses no risks of catastrophic degasification events in the future. The researchers emphasize the rate of loss is extremely gradual over geological spans of time.
However, the find does impact our understanding of Earth’s earliest epochs and thus shifts models of planetary evolution. It also raises further questions about the abundance of helium-3 deep in the core available for study. Capturing and using rare helium isotopes holds importance for experimental nuclear fusion reactors potentially offering abundant clean energy.
While many puzzles remain unsolved, the trapped gases in Earth’s fiery inner sanctum are providing humanity with precious insights into our planet’s hidden history—one elemental atom at a time.
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