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Science 31 January 1964:
Vol. 143. no. 3605, pp. 465 - 467
DOI: 10.1126/science.143.3605.465
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Articles

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

G. J. Wasserburg 1, Gordon J. F. MacDonald 2, F. Hoyle 3, and William A. Fowler 4

1 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
2 Institute of Geophysics and Physics, University of California Los Angeles
3 Cambridge University, Cambridge, England
4 California Institute of Technology

Data from a wide variety of igneous rock types show that the ratio of potassium to uranium is approximately 1 X 104. This suggests that the value of K/U ap1 X 104 is characteristic of terrestrial materials and is distinct from the value of 8 X 104 found in chondrites. In a model earth with K/U ap 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 Th238 compared with K40


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