Abstract
IT is now well known that if the proportion of radium in the interior of the earth is the same as that in the surface rocks, the earth ought to be growing hotter, and the temperature gradient of the crust ought to be much higher than we find it. A simple calculation shows that a distribution of radium averaging 2 × 10–14 grams in each gram of rock throughout the earth would suffice to preserve thermal equilibrium. The amounts of radium actually found in the surface rocks are approximately as follows:—
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HOLMES, A. Radium and the Evolution of the Earth's Crust. Nature 91, 398 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/091398a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/091398a0
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