Overview
- Karolytė’s team, which reported results Tuesday, detected mantle-like helium in gases from hot springs inside the Kafue Rift in central Zambia.
- They sampled eight geothermal sites and found mantle signatures at all six locations within the rift while the two sites outside showed only crustal gases.
- A faint carbon dioxide signal of mantle origin appeared in the rift samples, which fits an early rift stage where helium shows up first and CO2 grows later with volcanic activity.
- Scientists say the Kafue Rift sits within a roughly 2,500-kilometer zone that may one day evolve into a new plate boundary, though any continental split would take millions of years.
- The team plans broader sampling across the rift zone this year, and the work highlights possible geothermal and helium or hydrogen resources, with partial funding disclosed from Kalahari GeoEnergy.