Oxford University - July 2023: New approach to gas exploration has discovered a huge helium gas field, which could address the increasingly critical shortage of this vital yet rare element.13 Dec 2023 19:58
Now, researchers from Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences and Durham University, working with Norwegian helium exploration company Helium-One, have developed a brand new exploration approach. The first use of this method has resulted in the discovery of a world-class helium gas field in Tanzania.
Their research shows that volcanic activity provides the intense heat necessary to release the gas from ancient, helium-bearing rocks. Within the Tanzanian East African Rift Valley, volcanoes have released helium from ancient deep rocks and have trapped this helium in shallower gas fields. The research was presented today by PhD student Diveena Danabalan at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Yokohama, Japan.
Diveena Danabalan said: ‘We show that volcanoes in the rift play an important role in the formation of viable helium reserves. Volcanic activity likely provides the heat necessary to release the helium accumulated in ancient crustal rocks. However, if gas traps are located too close to a given volcano, they run the risk of helium being heavily diluted by volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide, just as we see in thermal springs from the region. We are now working to identify the ‘goldilocks-zone’ between the ancient crust and the modern volcanoes where the balance between helium release and volcanic dilution is ‘just right’.’
https://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/2016/06/huge-helium-discovery-a-life-saving-find/
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