Open AccessMeasurements of the rate at which Helium is produced in Thorianite and Pitchblende, with a minimum estimate of their antiquity
Author(s) -
Robert John Strutt
Publication year - 1910
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical and physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9150
pISSN - 0950-1207
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.1910.0083
Subject(s) - helium , uraninite , mineral , nuclear physics , nuclear engineering , mineralogy , physics , chemistry , environmental science , atomic physics , materials science , engineering , metallurgy , uranium
The method of deducing a minor limit to the age of minerals from an examination of their radioactive properties has, up to the present time, depended on a measurement of the amount of helium they now contain, and on an indirect calculation of the rate at which it is being produced by the radioactive matter within them. There is not now much uncertainty about this calculation. Nevertheless, considering the fundamental importance of the question of geological time, it is not superfluous to determine in some favourable case by direct volume-measurement of the gas how much helium is produced per gramme of the mineral per annum, in order to see how long the quantity found in the natural mineral would take to accumulate, and to check the method of calculation to which we must still resort where the much more difficult direct method is impracticable.