Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/39

Rh to slight traces of the known radioactive elements or to new kinds of radioactive matter. It is not improbable that a close examination of the radioactivity of the different soils may lead to the discovery of radioactive substances which are not found in pitchblende or other radioactive minerals. The extraordinary delicacy of the electroscopic test of radioactivity renders it not only possible to detect the presence in inactive matter of extremely minute traces of a radioactive substance, but also in many cases to settle rapidly whether the radioactivity is due to one of the known radio-elements.

The observations of Elster and Geitel render it probable that the radioactivity observed in the atmosphere is due to the presence of radioactive emanations or gases, which are carried to the surface by the escape of underground water. Indeed it is difficult to avoid such a conclusion, since there is no evidence that any of the known constituents of the atmosphere are radioactive. Concurrently with observations of the radioactivity of the atmosphere, experiments have been made on the amount of ionization in the atmosphere itself. It is important to settle what part of this ionization is due to the presence of radioactive matter in the atmosphere. Comparisons of the relative amount of active matter and of the ionization in the atmosphere over land and sea will probably throw light on this important problem.

The wide distribution of radioactive matter in the soils which have so far been examined has raised the question whether the presence of radium and other radioactive matter in the earth, may not, in part at least, be responsible for the internal heat of the earth. It can readily be calculated that the presence of radium (or equivalent amounts of other kinds of radioactive matter) to the extent of about five parts in one hundred million million by mass would supply as much heat to the earth as is lost at present by conduction to its surface. It is certainly significant that, as far as observation has gone, the amount of radioactive matter present in the soil is of this order of magnitude.

The production of helium from radium indirectly suggests a means of calculating the age of the deposits of radioactive minerals. It seems reasonable to suppose that the helium always found associated with radioactive minerals is a product of the decomposition of the radioactive matter present. In the mineral fergusonite, for example, about half of the helium is removed by heating the mineral and the other half by solution. Thus it does not seem likely that much of the helium formed in the mineral escapes from it, so that the amount present represents the quantity produced since its formation. If the rate of the production of helium by radium (or other radioactive substance) is known, the age of the mineral can at once be estimated from the observed volume of helium stored in the mineral and the amount of radium present. All these