5/8/2023 0 Comments Fluid browser vs heloimLittle more than a novelty when first discovered, helium has become a key commodity. It was the accidental discovery of one such helium-rich natural gas accumulation at Dexter in Kansas, in 1903 that started the Unites States’ helium boom. Natural gas deposits commonly contain trace amounts of helium in the parts per million, yet a few are known to contain up to 10-percent helium. Courtesy of USGS.ĭespite the rarity of helium on Earth, it is in some places concentrated. Major helium bearing natural gas fields in the United States. Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen, but it is exceedingly rare on Earth the atmosphere contains approximately 5.2 parts per million, the Earth’s crust approximately 8 parts per billion and seawater approximately 4 parts per trillion. With an atomic number of 2 and an atomic mass of 4 (or more rarely, 3), it has the smallest atomic radius of any element, 31 picometers. Helium is a monatomic gas at temperatures above 4 degrees Kelvin. ![]() The experiments were repeated, at Uppsala by Per Teodor Cleve and Nils Abraham Langer in 1895, leading to a measurement of helium’s atomic weight. Hillebrand, that a sample of helium gas was finally obtained from uraninite. Originally assumed to be a solar metal, it was given the name “helium” from the Greek word for the sun, “helios.”Īlthough the element was also recognized in the spectrum of the gases emitted by Mount Vesuvius in 1882, it was not until 1889 during experiments conducted by William F. Helium was first observed during the 1868 solar eclipse as a dark adsorption line in the spectrum of the sun. ![]() The History of Helium Exploration, Part 1 of 2
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