269. Age of radio-active minerals. Helium is only found in the radio-active minerals, and this fact, taken in conjunction with the liberation of helium by radium, indicates that the helium must have been produced as a result of the transformation of radium and the other radio-active substances contained in the minerals. Now in a mineral about half the helium is, in many cases, released by heat and the residue by solution. It seems probable that the helium produced throughout the mass of the mineral is mechanically imprisoned in it. Moss[1] found that, by grinding pitchblende in vacuo, helium is evolved, apparently showing that the helium exists in cavities of the mineral. Travers[2] has suggested that, since helium is liberated on heating, the effect may be due to the heat generated by grinding. The escape of the helium from the heated mineral is probably connected with the fact observed by Jaquerod[3] that helium passes through the walls of a quartz tube, heated above 500° C. The substance of the mineral probably possesses a similar property. Travers considers that helium is present in the mineral in a state of supersaturated solid solution, but the facts are equally well explained by assuming that the helium is mechanically imprisoned in the mass of the mineral.
The sudden rise of temperature observed in the mineral fergusonite, at the time the helium is released, has been found to have nothing to do with the presence of helium, for it also takes place in minerals not containing helium. The old view that helium was in a state of chemical combination with the mineral must be abandoned in the light of these more recent experiments.
Since the helium is only released from some minerals by the action of high temperatures and solution, it appears probable that a large proportion of the helium found in the minerals is unable to escape under normal conditions. Thus if the rate of production of helium by the radio-active substance were definitely known, it should be possible to calculate the age of the mineral by observing the volume of helium liberated from it by solution.
In the absence of such definite information, an approximate
