Measuring the Global Radioactivity in the Earth by Multidetector Antineutrino Spectroscopy
R. S. Raghavan, S. Schönert et al.
Physical Review Letters, Volume 80, Number 3, 635-638 (19 January 1998)
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.635 [local copy]
Abstract
We show that antineutrino (
) spectroscopy in upcoming detectors in Italy and Japan can be used to measure the separate global abundances of 238U and 232Th, thus ∼90% of the radiogenic heat in the Earth. Exploiting the unique advantage of their contrasting geological locations, they may also probe differences in U, Th areal densities in the continental and oceanic crusts and the mantle. Bearing directly on the interior of the whole Earth, such data can test, for the first time, the conceptual foundations of the geophysical structure, dynamics, and evolution of the present Earth.