Helium - The Other Natural Gas

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Off-World Exploration, Mining, & Technology

Helium is the second lightest and second most abundant element in the observable universe where it makes up about 24 per cent of the total elemental mass. This mass is more than 12 times greater than the mass of all the heavier elements combined. Most helium in the universe is helium-4 and is believed to have been created in the Big Bang and during fusion reactions in stars. Despite this abundance, helium, the lightest of the noble gases, is rare in the Earth's atmosphere making only about 0.00054 per cent of the volume or 5.2 parts per trillion. Most of the local helium was created by the natural decay of heavy radioactive elements, principally thorium and uranium, in the minerals cleveite, uraninite, carnotite and monazite. Because helium migrates and is trapped in the subsurface under conditions that also trap hydrocarbons, the greatest natural concentrations of the helium the planet are found in natural gas.