Few years, scientists will name the exact mass of radioactive inventory of the Earth.
Physicists and geologists are planning to estimate the exact mass and volume of all stocks of radioactive elements within the crust, mantle and core of the Earth by 2025. It is assumed that by this time it will be put into operation all the largest neutrino Observatory in the world, RIA Novosti reported with slyly on an article published in the journal Scientific Reports.
“Understanding how much radioactive substance remains in the bowels of the Earth, will help us understand how quickly the planet had been spent with them in the past and how much of the radionuclides are still contained in her “tank”. If we know how fast the planet cooled in the past, we can understand how long the Earth will last,” said the Wylie McDonagh from the University of Maryland in Baltimore (USA).
It is reported that, although the approximate level of heat of the Earth has long been known to scientists — 42-46 terawatts, the nature of this heat clearly are still not clear. Most scientists believe that the Earth is mainly warmed from radioactive decay of long-lived isotopes of uranium and thorium.
Other scholars, relying on recent measurements of the Japanese physicists working with the detector the detector consists in Toyama, I believe that the Earth warms, not only radioactive elements, but the “baby heat”, has survived since the birth of the Solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
Scientists dispute can be resolved in 2025, when everything is new and still under construction neutrino detectors – the detector consists updated, Italian Borexino Jinping and the Chinese JUNO, and American SNO+ is accumulated enough data on the flow antineutrino born in the bowels of the Earth.
Scientists believe that neutrino is born not only in the interiors of stars, but the decay of atoms of uranium and thorium deep in the rocks of the crust and mantle, which allows directly to calculate the number inside the planet, knowing the half-life of these elements. For an accurate assessment of their concentration data are needed on all continents of the Earth, and for this reason, scientists will have to wait.
According to Macdona, you need at least a year of continuous observations on all five detectors in order to obtain accurate estimates for the mass of radioactive substances inside the Earth. “These figures will help us not only to understand how much of the fuel for nuclear power plants can be extracted from the bowels of the planet, but also to solve the mystery of how long the Land will remain suitable for life,” the paper reported.
