Earthquakes may produce large gold nuggets, new study shows

Latest Science & Tech Team TabloidPK September 3, 2024 0 Comments 21 Views

Earthquakes may produce large gold nuggets, new study shows

A new study shows earthquakes may produce large gold nuggets which we usually witness in bank vaults or Olympic medals. Tiny gold particles may combine into larger nuggets due to a chemical reaction caused by pressure and force through earthquakes.

Moving tectonic plates that generate earthquakes apply this pressure and force on gold particles to gather into large nuggets. Chris Voisey is an Australian Geologist and co-author of this research study.

He stated the biggest finding is showing a new gold-forming process. Their research also explains how exactly large gold nuggets might form. This has always been a problem, particularly in light of the lack of field data showing alternative methods of gold formation.

*Tiny gold particles merge into larger chunks in Earth’s crust due to earthquake pressure*

One of the most common minerals in Earth’s crust, quartz is thought to contain gold deposits that makeup about 75% of all gold mined.

Geochemists have long known that gold can exist in fluids found in the middle to lower levels of the Earth’s crust. These fluids can seep into quartz cracks, but the amount of fluid involved seemed to limit the amount of gold that could dissolve.

So, it was hard to explain larger gold nugget formation. Although scientists hypothesized that gold nanoparticles within fluid might combine into those larger chunks of quartz, it was unclear how.

Unlike dissolved gold, nanoparticles typically wouldn’t have the chemical energy to initiate the necessary reaction to build up on cracks’ surface and form a nugget.

*Earthquake-induced piezoelectricity plays a crucial role in the formation of large gold nuggets*

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Nature Geoscience has published this research study which shows earthquakes produce geological stress. It may cause quartz to possess a unique geochemical characteristic, “piezoelectricity.” This phenomenon could facilitate the formation of larger gold nuggets.

Piezoelectricity is a property of certain materials that induces an electric current when mechanically stressed. Scientists revealed quartz produces an electric field when an earthquake produces stress on it.

Afterward, quartz mineral crystals in fluid containing gold nanoparticles may produce enough voltage to pile into large gold nuggets. Hence, Earthquakes may produce large gold nuggets under seismic stress on quartz crystals owing to tectonic plate movement.