Helium in Rajmahal volcanic basin

According to a recent article published in ‘The Hindu’, India’s Rajmahal volcanic basin around Bakreswar and nearby Tantloi, now in Jharkhand, is the store house of helium trapped for billions years, since the very birth of our Earth from the Sun.

  • Indian scientists are working on a project to tap helium resources to meet India’s requirement.
  • India consumes about 70 million cubic metres per year. But the reserve of helium by far exceeds this.
  • Every year, India imports helium worth Rs 55,000 crores from the U.S. to meet its needs.
  • Helium is colourless, odourless, tasteless, inert and a noble gas.
  • It has many applications, mainly in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, in rockets (cryogenics), Semiconductor Processing, welding and in nuclear reactors.
  • The U.S. is the most important exporter of helium across the world. The U.S. is also the biggest store house of helium.
  • The U.S., now, is planning to switch off export of helium from 2021.
  • In 2018, the United States produced the largest volume of helium worldwide. In that year, they produced 64 million cubic meters of helium, which was extracted from natural gas. Following the United States was Qatar, which produced 45 million cubic meters of helium.

(Source: The Hindu)

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