New helium source discovered in Tanzania
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029924
New Scientist : Some 1.53 billion cubic meters of helium has been discovered beneath the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania. Because of helium’s many uses in scientific and medical research, and in novelty balloons, the world’s supply has been dwindling. To date, all helium had been found by accident. Now Chris Ballentine of Oxford University and colleagues have deliberately tracked down helium for the first time. They identified the Tanzania site after looking for rock that contains the necessary radioactive ingredients that decay into helium and for underground caverns that could have trapped the resulting gas. Although the researchers have shown that prospecting for helium is possible, they emphasize that the supply will eventually prove finite.