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Mysterious Helium Leak Detected in Nevada

Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News

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Sprung a Leak

Nov. 29, 2007 -- Strange mixtures of helium gas have been discovered leaking from the ground in Nevada. To the surprise of geologists, helium-3 and other gases, which are normally associated volcanoes, are seeping up through non-volcanic ground there.

The discovery could reveal some secrets about how hot fluids deep in the crust control earthquakes as well as lead to new geothermal energy sources.

A first-ever helium map of the Basin and Range Province -- a geologic region which runs from western Utah westward to eastern California and includes all of Nevada -- shows the relative amounts of helium-3 over helium-4 steadily increasing east to west. The new helium map is being published in the Nov. 30 issue of the journal Science.

Helium-3 comes from the mantle, beneath the crust, whereas helium-4 is produced within the crust itself.

The survey which led to the helium map was inspired by scientists trying to figure out why there was excess helium-3 at the Dixie Valley geothermal plant in central Nevada.

"I was perplexed by that," said geologist and lead author of the Science report, B. Mack Kennedy of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "We set out to see if Dixie Valley was an anomaly. So we did a survey to see the background signal."

The clear helium-3 trend across the Basin and Range was a surprise, Kennedy told Discovery News. But it just might fit with what's known about the way the crust behaves across the same stretch of Earth.