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A possible in situ 3H and 3He source in Earth’s interior: an alternative explanation of origin of 3He in deep Earth

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Abstract

Origin of 3He in the Earth is a mystery. Lacking a production mechanism, scientists assume 3He was trapped in the Earth, when the Earth was formed. In contrast to this assumption, we have found 3He and 3H concentrations in excess of the atmospheric values in the deep waters of the volcanic Lakes Pavin (France), Laacher (Germany) and Nemrut (Turkey). This paper reports the result of finding 3H in these three volcanic lakes that appear to originate from the mantle. Because 3H has a half-life of 12.3 years, this 3H and the resulting 3He must have formed recently in the mantle and not be part of a primordial reservoir. The nuclear reactions that generate tritium might be a source of “missing” energy in the interior of the Earth.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by President Foundation of the China Institute of Atomic Energy (No. YZ-0704). We thank Dr. Edmund Storms for his interest in this work, his valuable comments and many helps in completing this paper. We thank Professor Pinxian Wang for his helpful comments. We also express our thanks to the three reviewers for critical reviews and helpful comments on improving the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Institute of Atomic Energy, P.O. Box 275(49), Beijing, 102413, China

    Songsheng Jiang & Ming He

  2. Boner Nuclear Laboratory, MS315, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Huston, TX, 77005, USA

    Jing Liu

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  1. Songsheng Jiang
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  2. Jing Liu
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Correspondence to Songsheng Jiang.

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Communicated by Edmund Storms

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Jiang, S., Liu, J. & He, M. A possible in situ 3H and 3He source in Earth’s interior: an alternative explanation of origin of 3He in deep Earth. Naturwissenschaften 97, 655–662 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-010-0681-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-010-0681-z

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