Relative Contributions of Uranium, Thorium, and Potassium to Heat Production in the Earth

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) - Tập 143 Số 3605 - Trang 465-467 - 1964
G. J. Wasserburg1, Gordon J. F. MacDonald2, F. Hoyle3, William A. Fowler4
1California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
2Institute of Geophysics and Physics, University of California Los Angeles
3Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.
4California Institute of Technology

Tóm tắt

Data from a wide variety of igneous rock types show that the ratio of potassium to uranium is approximately 1 × 10 4 . This suggests that the value of K/U ≈ 1 × 10 4 is characteristic of terrestrial materials and is distinct from the value of 8 × 10 4 found in chondrites. In a model earth with K/U ≈ 10 4 , uranium and thorium are the dominant sources of radioactive heat at the present time. This will permit the average terrestrial concentrations of uranium and thorium to be 2 to 4.7 times higher than that observed in chondrites. The resulting models of the terrestrial heat production will be considerably different from those for chondritic heat production because of the longer half-life of U 238 and Th 232 compared with K 40

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American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Tập 143 Số 3605

465-467

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