How did all the xenon vanish?

Of all the gaseous xenon the earth’s primordial atmosphere contained, only roughly 10 % is left today. This leaves scientists to wonder, how and where to all the xenon vanished in the mean time. David S. Brock and Gary J. Scholbrick, chemists from McMaster Universtity in Hamilton, Canada, now shed light on this mystery. Obtaining Xe(IV) oxide by hydrolysis of Xe(IV) fluoride allowed Brock and Scholbrick to obtain detailed Raman spectra of Xe¹⁸O₂ and Xe¹⁸O₂. Suprisingly, these spectra are in line with earlier studies of xenon doped siliciumdioxide, which is the most plentiful mineral in the earth’s crust. Thus, all the xenon in the earth’s atmosphere might have vanished by being inserted into SiO₂ minerals under extreme conditions.

Read more:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja110618g

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7337/full/471138d.html

The picture shows the general structure of tetrahedral siliciumdioxide