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Published 1963 | public
Book Section - Chapter

Isotopic and Chemical Composition of Some Terrestrial Natural Gases

Abstract

A variety of natural gases was analyzed for their content of argon, helium, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane and heavier hydrocarbons, along with the isotopic compositions of their argon and carbon. It is found that most natural gases, including samples from geothermal areas, have a (He^4/A^( 40))rad ratio which is close to the production ratio in normal rocks. Glacial drift gases were found to have a distinctive chemistry and contain no detectable radiogenic argon. The observed atmospheric argon contents of all gases, including very high pressure sources, are found to be compatible with a simple solubility model. Using the measured ratios of (He^4/A ^(40))rad, a calculation of the mean life of He^4 in the atmosphere was made of 5 x 10^5 ≤ τ He^4 ≤ 2.5 x 10^7 years.

Additional Information

© 1963 North-Holland Pub. Co. The authors wish to thank Theodore Wen for his assistance with some of the gas analyses. Dr. S. Epstein generously permitted the use of his mass spectrometric facilities for the carbon analyses. This work was supported in part by a grant from the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society and a grant from the National Science Foundation. One of us (E. M.) was supported by a Ford Foundation Fellowship.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 26, 2023