Canada – World’s Largest Source of Cesium
Cesium is a rare chemical element.
It is present in the Earth’s crust at an average of approximately 3 parts per million.
More than two-thirds of the world’s reserves of Cesium – 110,000 tonnes – are found at Bernic Lake, Manitoba, Canada.
At the present rate of world mine production, which may be between 5,000 and 10,000 kg/yr, these reserves will last thousands of years.
Cesium is used in highly precise atomic clocks.
NIST-F1, America’s primary time and frequency standard, is a cesium fountain atomic clock developed at the NIST laboratories in Boulder, Colorado. NIST-F1 contributes to the international group of atomic clocks that define Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the official world time. As scientists continue to improve the underlying technology, uncertainty in NIST-F1’s measurement of time is continually improving. Currently it neither gains nor loses as much a second in more than 60 million years.
References and Further Reading
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