In this case, the “it” in question is helium, a gas used in everything from particle accelerators to MRI machines.
A dearth of helium has long been of grave concern to researchers.
Over a trillion liters of helium have been found beneath Tanzania’s volcanic Rift Valley, Briggs reports.
Their work paid off: They discovered a cache of up to 54 billion cubic feet of the gas.
The half-life of the most prevalent uranium isotope is billions of years old—it’s older than Earth itself.
Over time, helium forms from the decaying uranium and is trapped beneath Earth’s surface, but it takes its sweet time.
He points out that the newly-found helium (which must still be extracted) is enough to fill more than 1.2 million medical MRI scanners. »
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