Relative Contributions of Uranium, Thorium, and Potassium to Heat Production in the Earth

Details Relative Contributions of Uranium, Thorium, and Potassium to Heat Production in the Earth Relative Contributions of Uranium, Thorium, and Potassium to Heat Production in the Earth

Jan 1964

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1964sci...143..465w&link_type=abstract

Science, Volume 143, Issue 3605, pp. 465-467

Computer Science

51

Scientific paper

Data from a wide variety of igneous rock types show that the ratio of potassium to uranium is approximately 1 × 104. This suggests that the value of K/U ≈ 1 × 104 is characteristic of terrestrial materials and is distinct from the value of 8 × 104 found in chondrites. In a model earth with K/U ≈ 104, uranium and thorium are the dominant sources of radioactive heat at the present time. This will permit the average terrestrial concentrations of uranium and thorium to be 2 to 4.7 times higher than that observed in chondrites. The resulting models of the terrestrial heat production will be considerably different from those for chondritic heat production because of the longer half-life of U238 and Th232 compared with K40.

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