About 11,000 published natural gas analyses of helium are used in the estimation of the average global scale accumulation and concentration of radiogenic helium in sediments. Simple lognormal statistics is employed to derive a net accumulation rate between 1†105 to 6.7†105 helium atoms per cubic meter of reservoir rock per second. This acccumulation rate permitted to infer an average helium concentration of nonreservoir sediments of about 67 ppm. By assuming a simple closed system model it is shown that deep seated sources of helium are not necessary to explain the present regime of helium in sediments on a global scale. Helium accumulation rates and concentrations obtained by this method are in close agreement with existing fundamental geochemical estimates of uranium and thorium in rather average type sediments. |