Where does gold on Earth come from?

One of the minerals that play an important role in human development history is gold. The process of finding gold has motivated people to migrate, explore and even create wars, but its origin remains an open question.

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Recently, scientists have found evidence that gold is pushed to the surface of the Earth by movements deep in the Earth's heart in the Patagonia region of South America.

Where does gold on Earth come from? Picture 1
Gold Mine in Sovereign, Victoria State, Australia.(Photo: Flickr.)

Researcher José María González at the University of Granada, Spain, says the minerals we are exploiting are in the crust. Most of us only know how to use these minerals but know very little about their true origin.

In the past, researchers believed that the mineral deposits originated from the Earth's crust, but the new research results show that they are produced in the mantle, the second crust behind the Earth's crust. The Earth is divided into three main layers, including the mantle, mantle and core layer.

Currently, humans cannot go to the mantle and therefore cannot learn more about it. However, we can study materials from deep mantle through volcanic eruptions. Small pieces called "xenolith" can reach the crust through volcanic eruptions. The team found that inside the xenolith there were gold particles as small as the thickness of a hair.

Scientists study the area of ​​Deseado Massif in Patagonia, which has a high density of gold mines to find out why gold mines are only distributed in some areas of the Earth.

They hypothesized that the result of geological history caused the mantle beneath Deseado Massif to create surface gold deposits.

200 million years ago, Africa and South America were on the same continent. The uplifting of the mantle column from the deep mantle breaks the thinner crust and is more prone to cracking, leading to the separation of the two continents. And it is the lifting of the mantle column that makes the metal mantle richer, facilitating the formation of gold mines.

The results of the study are published in Nature Communications on October 10.