| ▲ | austin-cheney 4 hours ago | |
According to Wikipedia thorium is probably created from neutron stars or supernovae making it one of the rarest elements in the galaxy. But, it’s quite abundant on Earth, maybe 3x as abundant as Uranium on earths crust. Because of this abundance it is, along with Radon, the primary constituent of earths natural background radiation. | ||
| ▲ | fnordpiglet an hour ago | parent | next [-] | |
Iron is the last element that can form through a sustaining fusion process. All elements above iron are formed in super nova or neutron star collisions. Specifically gold and platinum are thought to be formed primarily in neutron star collisions Reality is amazing!! | ||
| ▲ | moring 17 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |
Wikipedia says that potassium-40 has the largest contribution to background radiation, about 10x as much as thorium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_radioactivity | ||
| ▲ | fsh 37 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | |
The nuclear clock uses 229Th though which has an 8000 year half life and does not occur in nature at all. | ||