Theory goes that the earth is a coalescense of materials in our area of the orbit, not once, but twice (including the moon forming collision). Helium being a noble gas would have to settle in using its own form. But that form would be incredibly light and likely rise to the top of our atmosphere, if not get blown off by solar wind, right? So how do we have helium here at all?
In: Earth Science
Helium is a decay product of several nuclear reactions involving heavier elements (uranium, thorium, etc.).
Since this mostly happens in rocks, the helium typically can’t go anywhere and is stuck in place. It was generated here, and will continue to do so as long as we’ve got radioactive elements decaying within the earth.
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