Scientists just discovered a massive field of precious heliu

British scientists have detected a huge helium field in Africa, after discovering a massive stash of the crucial gas underground in Tanzania.

The find – estimated to be nearly seven times the total amount of helium consumed globally every year – will help allay concerns over Earth's dwindling known supplies of the natural resource, which is crucial for things like MRI scanners, nuclear energy, and detecting industrial leaks.

And best of all, the researchers who discovered the gas field say that their new techniques for helium exploration make further such finds likely.

Earth scientists from Oxford and Durham universities worked together with Norwegian helium exploration company Helium One in the Tanzanian East African Rift Valley. What the team found was that very old helium, trapped in ancient rocks underground, can become released by volcanic activity, which helps transport the gas to shallower gas fields closer to the surface.

"We show that volcanoes in the Rift play an important role in the formation of viable helium reserves," said researcher Diveena Danabalan from Durham University. "Volcanic activity likely provides the heat necessary to release the helium accumulated in ancient crustal rocks."

But while the volcanoes help to free the trapped helium, depending on their proximity to the gas reserves, they can also end up wasting the precious element.

"[I]f gas traps are located too close to a given volcano, they run the risk of helium being heavily diluted by volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide, just as we see in thermal springs from the region," said Danabalan. "We are now working to identify the 'goldilocks-zone' between the ancient crust and the modern volcanoes where the balance between helium release and volcanic dilution is 'just right'."

Based on the team's research, it's thought that the gas the researchers have sampled so far, bubbling near the surface, is part of a much greater whole.