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A similar radiogenic series is derived from the long-lived radioactive primordial nuclide 232 Th. These nuclides are described as geogenic, meaning that they are decay or fission products of uranium or other actinides in subsurface rocks. [6] All such nuclides have shorter half-lives than their parent radioactive primordial nuclides.
The stable nuclides of lithium, beryllium, and boron found on Earth are thought to have been formed by the same process as the cosmogenic nuclides but at an earlier time in cosmic ray spallation predominantly before the Solar System's formation, and thus they are by definition primordial nuclides and not cosmogenic.
Certain light (low atomic number) primordial nuclides (isotopes of lithium, beryllium and boron) are thought to have been created not only during the Big Bang, but also (and perhaps primarily) to have been made after the Big Bang, but before the condensation of the Solar System, by the process of cosmic ray spallation on interstellar gas and ...
Radiogenic heating occurs as a result of the release of heat energy from radioactive decay [4] during the production of radiogenic nuclides. Along with heat from the Primordial Heat (resulting from planetary accretion), radiogenic heating occurring in the mantle and crust make up the two main sources of heat in the Earth's interior. [5]
They occur in the decay chains of primordial isotopes of uranium or thorium. Some of these nuclides are very short-lived, such as isotopes of francium. There exist about 51 of these daughter nuclides that have half-lives too short to be primordial, and which exist in nature solely due to decay from longer lived radioactive primordial nuclides.
The next group is the primordial radioactive nuclides. These have been measured to be radioactive, or decay products have been identified in natural samples (tellurium-128, barium-130). There are 35 of these (see these nuclides ), of which 25 have half-lives longer than 10 13 years.
It is prevented from having a stable isotope with 4 protons and 6 neutrons by the very large mismatch in proton/neutron ratio for such a light element. (Nevertheless, beryllium-10 has a half-life of 1.36 million years, which is too short to be primordial, but still indicates unusual stability for a light isotope with such an imbalance.)
The longest-lived nuclides are also predicted to lie on the beta-stability line, for beta decay is predicted to compete with the other decay modes near the predicted center of the island, especially for isotopes of elements 111–115. Unlike other decay modes predicted for these nuclides, beta decay does not change the mass number.