Your party balloons contain a genuine earth product!
The First Discovery
A jubilant crowd gathered in the small town of Dexter, Kansas, in May 1903. Dexter was pinning its hopes for economic prosperity on a newly drilled well that had unleashed "a howling gasser."
Nine million cubic feet of gas was escaping each day before the equipment could be found to cap the well, and the drilling company wasted no time in selling stock and planning for additional wells.
To celebrate their good fortune, the people of Dexter planned a huge celebration, complete with band music, patriotic speeches and games.
The lighting of the escaping gas was planned as the spectacular climax to the day's events. Promotional circulars promised "a great pillar of flame from the burning well will light the entire countryside for a day and a night."
After an exhilarating address by the mayor, the excited gathering watched with anticipation as a burning bale of hay was slowly moved into contact with the gusher.
Instead of the expected conflagration, the flames of the burning bale were quickly extinguished. Undaunted, the mayor repeated the process several times, but with the same results. Disappointed and puzzled, the crowd slowly dispersed.
Dismay over the gas well's failure spread throughout Kansas, but Erasmus Haworth, the official state geologist, was intrigued by this unusual event. Haworth arranged for a large cylinder to be filled with the “Dexter Gas” and began a routine analysis of the cylinder's contents. The results readily gave a scientific explanation to the Dexter puzzle.
The gas contained only 15% combustible methane, which would not burn in the presence of almost 72% nonflammable nitrogen, and 12% of an unknown “inert gas” which was later identified as helium. Haworth’s results were reported to a Geological Society of America meeting in Philadelphia on Dec. 30, 1904.
The Earth Gas
Helium is generated throughout the earth’s rocky mantel but especially in the continental crust, it is manufactured deep in the earth’s core by the decay of uranium and thorium minerals. Helium migrates upward towards the earth’s surface and enters the earth’s atmosphere and eventually into space (this process occurs over millions of years).
The same rock layers that trap natural gas can also collect helium. The amount of helium found mixed in with the natural gas reflects the amount and age of uranium/thorium-containing materials beneath, the permeability of the rock and the quality of the rock barrier above the gas.
Amarillo Helium Plant
In 1928 a 50,000-acre underground helium-bearing natural gas structure known as the Cliffside Field was discovered near Amarillo.
In 1934, the United States Bureau of Mines completed negotiations for the Cliffside Helium Field and opened the Amarillo Helium Plant. For a number of years the plant at Amarillo was the sole producer of commercial helium in the world.
Natural gas containing helium was piped from Cliffside Field to the Amarillo Helium Plant where the extraction of the helium from the natural gas took place.
The separation process reduced the temperature of the natural gas, at which point most components except the helium liquefied; the still-gaseous helium was drawn off and stored.
The natural gas was restored to normal temperature and sold to local gas companies.
The Earthcache
At the coordinates, you will be at an entrance to the now closed Amarillo Helium Plant on the roadside of old Route 66. You do not have to enter the old plant to complete the tasks and it should not be attempted. Ample parking is available at the coordinates and also near the roadside historical marker.
In order to log this Earthcache, you must visit the site and complete two tasks:
Take a picture of yourself with your GPSr in hand with some part of the plant in the background and attach it to your log.
***** The plaque has been temporally removed for road construction. Answer the following question from information found in the cache page and e-mail it instead of the below question. The plant at the location separates the helium from what other gas? *****
(Disregard this question temporally: Locate the nearby plaque and send us an e-mail advising at what temperature the helium was extracted from the natural gas.)
Don't wait to log your find, just post your find with a pic, and send the e-mail. We will contact you if there is a problem with your answer.
In order to meet Earthcache guidelines both tasks must be completed.