According to Gizmag, for most people helium is party balloons, but the gas has important applications in MRI machines, welding, manufacturing semiconductors, deep-sea diving and blimps. Unfortunately, it tends to float off irretrievably into space, and with current reserves dwindling, the world has been on the edge of a global shortage.
Now, a research team has developed a new approach to finding fields of the gas underground, and with the first use of the technique they’ve discovered a massive reserve in East Africa. This new reserve was discovered in the Tanzanian East African Rift Valley, where the heat from volcanic activity was found to release helium from the ancient rocks it’s embedded in, and allow it to pool in gas fields closer to the surface. The research was conducted by scientists from the Universities of Oxford and Durham, along with the Norwegian helium exploration company, Helium One.
“We sampled helium gas (and nitrogen) just bubbling out of the ground in the Tanzanian East African Rift valley,” says Professor Chris Ballentine of Oxford University. “By combining our understanding of helium geochemistry with seismic images of gas trapping structures, independent experts have calculated a probable resource of 54 billion cubic feet (BCf) in just one part of the rift valley.”
That’s enough to fill more than 1.2 million MRI scanners, and more than twice the amount held in reserve by the world’s largest supplier, the US Federal Helium Reserve, which has just 24.2 BCf left. The annual global consumption of helium averages 8 BCf, and supplies aren’t being replenished fast enough to keep up.
