بتوقيت بيروت - 12/6/2025 1:31:41 AM - GMT (+2 )
In 1903, residents of the small town of Dexter, Kansas, gathered to celebrate a newly drilled natural gas well.
Crowds flocked to the well for the lighting of the escaping gas, whichofficials had saidwould produce “a great pillar of flame.” But when they rolled a burning bale of hay onto the well, nothing happened.
the و of و a - تفاصيل مهمةToday, helium is anessential cooling componentin nuclear reactors, rockets and medical diagnostic equipment such as MRI machines. The gas keeps fiber optics, superconductors, quantum computers and semiconductors cool, but skyrocketing demand has pushed supply chains to their limit,resulting in a global shortagethat haspersisted for than a decade. Helium extraction also has a huge carbon footprint — almost equivalent to the U.K.’s per year — because currently, it is exclusively produced together with natural gas.
However, in recent years, pioneering discoveries have led to a pivotal change in scientists’ understanding of the geology that helps helium accumulate. Researchers have uncovered reservoirs of primary, “carbon-free” helium — large accumulations of the gas that are highly concentrated and don’t contain methane — that could revolutionize the industry.
This new understanding has fueled exploration projects in a handful of regions around the world. From Yellowstone to Greenland to the East African Rift, a helium “rush” is starting to address shortages and helium’s enormous carbon footprint.
“It’s a new industry,”Thomas Abraham-James, co-founder and CEO of the exploration company Pulsar Helium, told Live Science.
Perfect seals, imperfect yieldsAfter World War I, helium discoveries multiplied and the U.S. emerged as the world’s leading producer.
Gas wells with helium levels of 0.3% and above were tapped to fuel a growing number of industries and form a stockpile, the Federal Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas. (The stockpile wassold in 2024to the industrial gas firm Messer.)
the و and و a - تفاصيل مهمةBut helium has been produced only as a minor byproduct,usually foundin tiny amounts mixed in with natural gases such as methane.
That’s because gases like methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) are required to transport helium from the middle part of Earth’s crust to shallower regions,Chris Ballentine, a professor of geochemistry at the University of Oxford, told Live Science in an email.
Science Spotlight takes a deeper look at emerging science and gives you, our readers, the perspective you need on these advances. Our stories highlight trends in different fields, how new research is changing old ideas, and how the picture of the world we live in is being transformed thanks to science.Helium forms in the top 16 miles (25 kilometers) of Earth’s crust when uranium and thorium break down into other radioactive elements, emitting alpha particles, or helium nuclei, in the process. These helium nuclei gain two electrons from atoms in their environment to form helium atoms, which then migrate and gradually collect in groundwater down to 10 miles (16 km) below Earth’s surface, Ballentine said.
the و in و and - تفاصيل مهمةBut for helium atoms to form a gas, they need to reach their “bubble point” — the concentration of a dissolved gas in a liquid required to make buoyant gas bubbles. Helium in groundwater rarely accumulates in sufficient quantities to reach this bubble point, Ballentine said. So other, ubiquitous gases, like methane and CO2, are typically needed to entrain helium and form the bubbles that rise toward geological traps, Ballentine said.
These geological traps are often natural gas fields. But helium also gets trapped, because natural gas fields often have strong seals, research suggests.
Carbon-free helium reservoirs need a number of conditions to form, emerging research suggests.(Image credit: Live Science)Natural gas reservoirs form beneath layers offine-grained “cap” rocks “and minerals. In Australia’s Amadeus Basin, for example, helium and natural gas are locked beneath a thick layer of salt, which is a “perfect” seal,Jon Gluyas, a professor of geoenergy, carbon capture and storage at Durham University in the U.K., told Live Science.
gas و a و of - تفاصيل مهمةMost places, however, don’t have a perfectly sealed reservoir to trap helium underground, so the gas escapes into the atmosphere. “All systems are leaky,” Gluyas said. As a result, most regions with helium-producing rocks emit some helium, so “if you went out with a sensitive enough instrument, you would find it,” he said.
Helium’s association with natural gas means producers can extract both at the same time, but this approach has major drawbacks. For one, the helium industry currently has an indirect carbon footprint ofabout 350 million tons (320 million metric tons)per year, which isbigger than all but 20countries’ carbon footprints.
A second downside is that countries with natural gas deposits and the companies drilling these deposits control the world’s supply of helium. The U.S. used to dominate global helium production, but Qatar took the lead in 2022. Depending on other countries for helium introduces risks related to regional geopolitics, Gluyas said. Algeria and Russia are also leading helium producers,raising similar concerns.
But the biggest problem with helium extraction is that natural gas contains minuscule amounts of helium. In the U.S., the lower profitable limit to separate helium from natural gas is 0.3%, but some countries with different production and transport methods have much smaller thresholds. For example, Algeria’s Hassi R’Mel gas field contains 0.19% helium and Qatar’s North Dome deposits contain 0.04% helium, yet both countries extract helium at these locations.
the و helium و gas - تفاصيل مهمة Groundbreaking discoveriesData show that only about1 in 6natural gas reservoirs in the U.S. has helium levels higher than 0.3% and that levels above 7% are extremely rare, meaning economically useful helium concentrations are the exception in the U.S.
the و is و in - تفاصيل مهمة Pulsar Helium measured the highest concentrations of helium ever found in North America at their Minnesota project site.(Image credit: Pulsar Helium)The other gases in the reservoir were nitrogen and CO2. But the site contains no natural gas, so it counts as a primary helium accumulation, Pulsar Helium representatives say. CO2concentrations were above 70%, but the company views this as anopportunity rather than a problem, because the gas is pure enough to be used for carbonated beverages, water treatment, food preservation and medicine.
Unique geologyThe reservoirs of hydrocarbon-free helium that researchers and companies find, the information they learn about the geology that forms these reservoirs. Shortly after the discovery in Tanzania, geologists identified five key conditions needed to form accumulations of helium without natural gas.
the و helium و Pulsar - تفاصيل مهمةFirst, the region must have helium-producing rocks miles below the surface. The best helium source rocks are ones that contain uranium or thorium, and are usually composed entirely of crystallized minerals, Gluyas, Ballentine and their colleagues wrote in a 2024 article for theEnergy Geoscience Conference Series.
of و to و the - تفاصيل مهمةthe و in و of - تفاصيل مهمة
The third condition to form a hydrocarbon-free helium reservoir is the presence of nitrogen in groundwater, becausenitrogen bubbles can transport heliumupward through the crust in the same way methane and CO2bubbles can, while completely removing greenhouse gases.
The fourth condition is the need for relatively airtight “cap rocks” that sit near the surface above the helium-forming rocks in Earth’s crust. That’s because when nitrogen reaches its bubble point, it captures helium atoms and taxies them until the gases either escape into the atmosphere or are trapped. But for that to happen, the cap rocks must form an impermeable seal.
The fifth and final condition is that these cap rocks must sit atop fractured, porous “reservoir” rocks that can store gas, Ballentine, Gluyas and their colleagues wrote in the 2024 article.
The growth rate of a reservoir depends on the rates at which gases enter from below and escape via cracks in the seal, the researchers wrote. The helium that enters a reservoir and the less that escapes through the seal, the bigger an accumulation can get. In other words, reservoirs ideally have porous or highly fragmented rocks down below, and nonporous, intact rocks above.
the و that و rocks - تفاصيل مهمةHelium reservoirs with impermeable seals can hold gases for long periods of geological time. For example, the link between the reservoir in Minnesota and the Midcontinent Rift System suggestshelium has been building up there for 1.1 billion years.
Appraisal and developmentPulsar Helium recentlyannouncedthat it will start engineering work for a helium production plant at its site in Minnesota, signaling that hydrocarbon-free, U.S.-produced helium could reach the market in just a few years.
the و a و helium - تفاصيل مهمة Pulsar Helium’s project in East Greenland is near Nerlerit Inaat International Airport and the coastal settlement of Ittoqqortoormiit.(Image credit: Pulsar Helium)Located about 3 miles (5 km) from the coastal settlement of Ittoqqortoormiit, the site in East Greenland looks promising for helium and geothermal energy production, which could limit the settlement’s dependency on fossil fuels, Abraham-James said. Mapping in 2024 revealed a zone of crust with temperatures reaching 266 F (130 C), as well as a fractured reservoir that researchers linked to gas emissions at the surface containing up to 0.8% helium,according to a statementfrom Pulsar Helium.
Any helium produced in East Greenland would likely go to the local community, Abraham-James said. Similarly, helium produced in Minnesotawould be sold inside the U.S.to supply MRI scanners, semiconductor fabrication and space launches, he said.
the و in و to - تفاصيل مهمةHelium shortages in the U.S. have eased somewhat since early 2024, partly thanks to additional supplies from natural gas fields, saidNicholas Fitzkee, a professor of chemistry at Mississippi State University.
“But having a larger domestic supply would be valuable, because it could insulate the U.S. from geopolitical instabilities that have contributed to past helium shortages,” Fitzkee told Live Science in an email.
Halfway across the globe, prospecting in Tanzania is also ongoing, with two exploration companies currently reporting helium levels of5.5%and2.46%at different ends of the Rukwa Rift Basin. Called Helium One Global and Noble Helium, these companies are still in the early phases of exploration, Gluyas said.
“Both Helium One and Noble Helium have successfully shown elevated concentrations of helium in the wells they’ve drilled,” he said. But these wells don’t provide a clear picture of the reservoir yet, and the reservoir may not end up fulfilling researchers’ expectations.
the و of و in - تفاصيل مهمة“They could speculate, based upon the seismic information, what the geometry of the accumulation might be, but they haven’t yet drilled sufficient wells to say, ‘It really is that,'” Gluyas said.
Beyond Tanzania,there may be opportunitiesfor helium exploration in India’s Bakreswar-Tantloi geothermal area, which is located in the east of the country and straddles the states of West Bengal and Jharkhand. The Bakreswar-Tantloi areasits on ancient granitic rocksthat are rich in uranium and therefore produce helium. The region also has a fault system and a high heat gradient as a result of ongoing tectonic activity along the Son-Narmada-Tapti rift zone,researchsuggests.
Closer to home, researchers are analyzing the conditions for potential helium accumulations beneath and around Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is rooted in the Wyoming Craton, a prehistoric region of crust and upper mantle that contains 3.5 billion-year-old rocksknown to produce huge quantities of helium. Thanks to Yellowstone’s countless geothermal features and volcanic structures, helium may be accumulating in reservoirs beneath or peripheral to the park, although it’s likely that the gas iscirculating and escaping into the atmospherethrough a complex system of natural pipes.
“What’s happened over the millions or hundreds of millions of years in the area in which Yellowstone occurs is that helium has been building up, and now in the last (roughly) 5 million years, thesupervolcanobeneath is flushing it out,” Gluyas explained.
the و and و in - تفاصيل مهمةThat means the chances of extracting this helium are remote, not least because of the scorching temperatures ofup to 275 F (135 C)that drillers would encounter belowground. “Will your drilling equipment survive? Almost certainly not,” Gluyas said.
But beyond Yellowstone, it’s important for existing hydrocarbon-free helium projects to complete their evaluations and start selling the gas as soon as possible, Gluyas said. “There is a huge need for helium,” he said.
However, Fitzkee sees another way forward — rolling out technologies that can recycle or lower our helium consumption. That could be through installing helium recovery systems or engineering room-temperature alternatives to current helium-hungry technologies, he added.
Topping up our helium supply is a good stopgap solution, but not a permanent fix, he argued.
helium و a و he - تفاصيل مهمة“Ultimately, we cannot mine our way out of future helium shortages,” he said. “Helium is non-renewable, and we have no easy way to make at scale.”
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