Found this on LinkedIn today. I thought it may be of interest to some.
http://www.california-gold-rush-min...-miner/a-theory-of-where-gold-came-from.html/
http://www.california-gold-rush-min...-miner/a-theory-of-where-gold-came-from.html/
A theory of where gold came from
- Thread starter Mr Boring
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Hi Mr B, yes i agree the gold and many other metals came from meteors. Of course the earth is made from the coalescing of meteors/asteroids and comets initially when it formed and was added to by billions of impacts in early earth history as the planets gravity cleaned up meteors in our general area. Gold has been identified in a number of found meteorites.
A related issue i find interesting is that numerous gold deposits appear to relate to gold emplaced by mantle plumes rising up through holes punched in the crust by large meteorites. The Sudbury deposits and the distribution of gold in much of NSW was probably influenced by meteors larger then 10 km in diameter punching holes down into the mantle (i would post a link but i am a newbie and must have 10 posts up before i can post a link).
Cheers RedDirtDigger
A related issue i find interesting is that numerous gold deposits appear to relate to gold emplaced by mantle plumes rising up through holes punched in the crust by large meteorites. The Sudbury deposits and the distribution of gold in much of NSW was probably influenced by meteors larger then 10 km in diameter punching holes down into the mantle (i would post a link but i am a newbie and must have 10 posts up before i can post a link).
Cheers RedDirtDigger
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Great topic, would love to hear other members opinions!
Here's a bit of food for thought. I saw this on a recent documentary, whether its true or not nobody really knows.
If we measured the earths lifespan as a 24 hour clock, we are currently sitting at approximately 8:30am.
Humans have been on the earth for less than 1 second.......
Here's a bit of food for thought. I saw this on a recent documentary, whether its true or not nobody really knows.
If we measured the earths lifespan as a 24 hour clock, we are currently sitting at approximately 8:30am.
Humans have been on the earth for less than 1 second.......
Twapster
Peter
I'm sure I was taught some weird stuff at school too!
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Gunter said:
Rooly? Eye dudnt cee heny uff dat wen hi red et .
Shocking wasn't it.. One of the guys I work with spells colours funny red= read... Grey = grai... Green= grean... And yellow with an "a" ... Ill leave you to work that out ...
I have found gold nuggets in amazing geological settings which defy normal logic. For example, I found a 17 grammer under a gumtree in the decomposing leaf litter (maybe brought up by arching roots?) The photo below is a 120oz patch. The first nugget (and largest) was spotted from a passing vehicle sticking out from the windrow on the right side of the track picture. It weighed 31oz. All the gold was on the surface. I was there and kicked a 90 grammer from the dust on the surface and abot 40 grams of smaller bits. This was in 2006. There was no deep gold although the ground was pushed to bedrock over 4ft below. As you can see, It was under power lines and inspired everyone involved to go out and buy "salt" coils as they were called at the time
Actually, elements are not made on earth. All the elements in the earth's crust (except Hydrogen) were formed in stars. Normal burning in stars can fuse (fusion) together atoms to make progressively heavier elements up to the atomic weight of iron. When a star burns all it's fuel it may explode as a supernova. It is these explosions of stars that had enough energy to create all the elements heavier than iron. These were scattered out into the universe and the process repeated billions of times. When the earth was forming (much later) all of the heavier elements naturally made their way through the molten planet to the core. Iron being the most abundant heavy makes the majority of the core. At this point all the gold on earth would be in the very centre of the earth at the core of the core.
At some point later, the earth was sideswiped by a planet almost mars sized and took a chunk off one side. Eventually the material ejected in the planet killing collision solidified into the moon and earth we know today. The core probably got a good stir in the process and gold may or may not have been ejected during the collision.
Later again, the remnants of this explosion and other material from the formation of the solar system (no doubt including gold) crashed back into the earth as meteorites (think the late heavy bombardment period). Many of these may have contained significant masses of gold. These huge (>10km) meteors once again punched holes through the "crme brulee-like" crust of the planet, but nowhere deep enough to deliver the gold contained in the meteor to the molten core of the earth. Magnetic and gravitic anomalies can potentially be accounted for by the increase mass density caused by these impacts and their contents.
The forces involved in the impact, and/or magma pressure from volcanism forced the molten silica glass (quartz) up through cracks in the crust of the earth. The gold introduced by the meteors is carried up with it in suspension. The silicates cool, with the gold coming out of solution and solidifying last and thus clumping together within the quartz in thin layers in the cracks (reef gold) or in pockets (nuggets or crystalline specimens) depending on how quickly it cools I suspect.
Over the years the erosion of the surface has distributed the gold across the alluvial fields and it has been concentrated in leads by the actions of countless river beds, paths, ages and levels.
It's quite amazing to realize that the gold in your pan was once created in the most violent explosions in the history of the universe.
Of course ever atom had to come from somewhere - and as the conservation law states "matter can neither be created nor destroyed, but merely changed it's form", combined with e=mc^2 show that the huge energy available in supernova explosion convert lighter matter into heavier, and release the leftover energy.
The geologists have traditionally argued that gold was brought to the surface by volcanism. This alone fails to take into account the method by which the gold got to earth in the first place. Plus with the heat and toffee-like molten proto earth - the gold will fall to the centre. Volcanos don't draw material up from the core, only from the magma plumes thousands of kilometres from the core. So how does the gold get into the volcanos? They are nowhere near close to being hot enough to fuse gold from lighter elements?
I believe it's got to be redeposited by meteoric impacts. The molten material from these impacts is forced back up by magma pressure from shallow depths compared to the depth to the core.
If you want to see how good atmosphere, life, water and time is at erasing most evidence of cratering from the late heavy bombardment - then take a look at the surface of the moon which has none of those erosive components except time.
Anyway, that my theory and I'm sticking to it.....belligerently and unswervingly, dogmatically and evangelically... until someone shows me better scientific evidence to the contrary. Then I am not too proud to completely adopt a better theory.
At some point later, the earth was sideswiped by a planet almost mars sized and took a chunk off one side. Eventually the material ejected in the planet killing collision solidified into the moon and earth we know today. The core probably got a good stir in the process and gold may or may not have been ejected during the collision.
Later again, the remnants of this explosion and other material from the formation of the solar system (no doubt including gold) crashed back into the earth as meteorites (think the late heavy bombardment period). Many of these may have contained significant masses of gold. These huge (>10km) meteors once again punched holes through the "crme brulee-like" crust of the planet, but nowhere deep enough to deliver the gold contained in the meteor to the molten core of the earth. Magnetic and gravitic anomalies can potentially be accounted for by the increase mass density caused by these impacts and their contents.
The forces involved in the impact, and/or magma pressure from volcanism forced the molten silica glass (quartz) up through cracks in the crust of the earth. The gold introduced by the meteors is carried up with it in suspension. The silicates cool, with the gold coming out of solution and solidifying last and thus clumping together within the quartz in thin layers in the cracks (reef gold) or in pockets (nuggets or crystalline specimens) depending on how quickly it cools I suspect.
Over the years the erosion of the surface has distributed the gold across the alluvial fields and it has been concentrated in leads by the actions of countless river beds, paths, ages and levels.
It's quite amazing to realize that the gold in your pan was once created in the most violent explosions in the history of the universe.
Of course ever atom had to come from somewhere - and as the conservation law states "matter can neither be created nor destroyed, but merely changed it's form", combined with e=mc^2 show that the huge energy available in supernova explosion convert lighter matter into heavier, and release the leftover energy.
The geologists have traditionally argued that gold was brought to the surface by volcanism. This alone fails to take into account the method by which the gold got to earth in the first place. Plus with the heat and toffee-like molten proto earth - the gold will fall to the centre. Volcanos don't draw material up from the core, only from the magma plumes thousands of kilometres from the core. So how does the gold get into the volcanos? They are nowhere near close to being hot enough to fuse gold from lighter elements?
I believe it's got to be redeposited by meteoric impacts. The molten material from these impacts is forced back up by magma pressure from shallow depths compared to the depth to the core.
If you want to see how good atmosphere, life, water and time is at erasing most evidence of cratering from the late heavy bombardment - then take a look at the surface of the moon which has none of those erosive components except time.
Anyway, that my theory and I'm sticking to it.....belligerently and unswervingly, dogmatically and evangelically... until someone shows me better scientific evidence to the contrary. Then I am not too proud to completely adopt a better theory.
That is an excellent explanation of gold enrichment on Earth. I think that explains the process Ditherer. Also, I would go as far as to to say that perhaps some of the nuggets (particularly some of the larger ones) found, are actually meteorites as well!. There are many areas where there is no lode, only large clean nuggets on or near the surface.
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Ditherer and Son said:
Good post
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Must be my charm :8
Thank You
Outback .
Thank You
Outback .
Mr Boring said:is that your nugget on your profile pic RedDirtDigger? why you still drinking Emu?
Hi Mr B, yes it is my nugget, (46 oz), alas unfortunately it is but a distant memory from 2010 and the money has been banked and spent. The block of Emu Export from the Marble Bar pub was a good option compared to the price of the other beers they had.
RedDirtDigger
More reading on the subject
http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/4212/cosmic-crashes-forge-gold
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110911.html
http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/4212/cosmic-crashes-forge-gold
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110911.html
I would have thought it unlikely that individual nuggets were themselves meteorites, the re-entry temperatures would likely melt or vaporise them. The nuggets you say are found without lodes are much more likely to be volcanic ejecta subsequently subject to normal forces of erosion (material previously formed in vents & cracks which is blasted high during a major eruption)
noncents
John
Hi guys a very interesting read. I listened to Dr Karl on the ABC radio talk about the same theory. I just got a (silly) question why isn't there any gold found in the Illawarra, Sydney and Hunter areas? If gold came from a meteorites should it not be spread over the whole country?
noncents said:
Hi Noncents, unfortunately all the sydney -illawarra is sitting on mainly sedimentary rocks of marine and freshwater origin (with a few young volcanic vents popping through) that do not contain any substantive gold in concentrations you can look for. There is some gold on the western edge of these Sydney Basin rocks north of lithgow and also small quantities of gold in old river deposits trapped under younger lava flows that cap the rocks in a few isolated spots (eg. Mount Airley).
There is however lots of gold, hundreds of metres below the sydney -illawarra area in the much older Lachlan Fold Belt rocks (like at Hill-End -Bathurst) which underlie the sydney basin rocks.
The issue is alot of geology, rock forming, mountain building, volcanism and erosion has occurred over the 3 billion years since much (not all) of the gold was delivered to the planet by meteorites. Alas most gold we find relies on it being pressurised towards the surface by volcanic activity or molten mantle juices rising up through faults (that can also pick up gold on the way through gold bearing rocks in the crust).
hope this helps, RedDirtDigger
