2024-09-09 01:14:15
Canberra: Scientists have made a major discovery. They have figured out how earthquakes cause large gold pieces to form from quartz. This has been a mystery that has been troubling researchers for decades. Gold is naturally formed in quartz rocks. It is the second most prominent mineral in the Earth’s crust after feldspar. But unlike other types of gold deposits, deposits found in quartz are often giant gold pieces. These pieces float in the cracks of quartz, which geologists call quartz veins. Quartz-rich rocks are periodically filled with hydrothermal fluids deep within the crust. The study related to this was published on Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience. Chris Voisey, lead author of the study and geologist at Monash University in Australia, said, ‘Gold is formed in quartz all the time. What is strange is that large gold nuggets are formed in them. We did not know how it works. How do such large pieces form in such a small space?’Hydrothermal fluids carry gold atoms up from depths and flow them through quartz veins, Voisey said. This means that the gold should theoretically be spread evenly throughout the cracks rather than being concentrated in one place.
The earthquake has an impact
According to the study, these nuggets of gold are extremely valuable and account for up to 75 percent of the total gold mined so far. He said that two different clues helped his colleagues solve the mystery. The study showed that gold nuggets often form in areas where earthquakes occur. Earthquakes can break these rocks and push hydrothermal fluid into quartz cracks. But quartz is a special type of mineral called piezoelectric. This means that when there is stress on it, such as during an earthquake, it produces an electric charge.
This is how gold nuggets are made
When the hydrothermal material starts to rise, the electric charge starts to turn the liquid into solid gold and collects in one place. This forms a gold nugget. Gold sticks to each other. So when a small nugget is formed, it attracts even more gold. It keeps getting bigger with every earthquake. Voisey said that the largest orogenic gold nugget found so far weighed 60 kg. He did an experiment in the lab, in which he got the same results.