Earth’s core is ‘leaking helium’ as experts find evidence of ‘how planets form’

Earth's core could be "leaking helium" – and the consequences are far more worrying than high-pitched voices.

The heart of the planet appears to be leaking two forms of the gas, with helium 3 (3He) and helium 4 (4He) leaking up into the rocks from the very core. Geochemists researching 62 million-year-old Arctic rocks made the strange discovery.

Their research has since suggested the Earth's core is leaking, with the surprisingly rare element making its way up from the molten core and out into the surface.

READ MORE: Alien 'blobs' still exist in Earth's core – and could make up a 'buried planet'

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Discoveries made by the crack science team has since seen evidence presented regarding the magnetic field of Earth and how it was generated. Where the helium came from is up for debate, but most of the element is lingering on from the Big Bang.

The find was made in volcanic rock, with the Arctic samples found to contain helium sourced either from pockets recently released by the Earth's interior mantle, or a slow-leaking reserve elsewhere.

Canada's Baffin Island shows some of the highest 3He and 4He ratios in the world, and the atmosphere, according to new research, has nothing to do with it. Instead, the helium presence is down to deeper surface worries, Indy100 reported.

Unusual concentrations are, at present, nothing to worry about – but scientists believe helium within the atmosphere has increased 50 times over. Analysis now shows more than 70 times anything previously detected or recorded in the atmosphere.

Ratios in isotopes may come from the after effects of volcanic eruptions, but geological advancements are still nowhere close to figuring out where the leak is coming from, or why it is happening.

The Earth's core, as of today, is still a massive hole of mystery. No major attempts are underway to get any closer to the core, with the world's deepest hole sealed off decades ago.

The "entrance to hell", which saw miners dig 40,000ft into the Earth's crust, has since been cut off and shut. Further work on the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia is unlikely to continue, though was dug with the hope of figuring out the secrets of the Earth's core.

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