Why are all naturally occurring radium isotopes radioactive?

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All naturally occurring isotopes of radium are radioactive because the element has an atomic number of 88. In nature, all elements with an atomic number of 84 or greater are radioactive, as their atomic nuclei are inherently unstable and undergo radioactive decay.2

Because all radium isotopes are radioactive and have relatively short half-lives on a geological time scale, any primeval radium that may have existed when Earth formed has long since disappeared. Consequently, the radium found in nature today exists only as a continuous disintegration product within the natural decay series of uranium, thorium, and actinium.1