Posted on 02/03/2022 6:41:50 AM PST by Red Badger
Scientists have identified a mechanism through which important metals, crucial to the manufacturing of renewable energy technologies, are passed from the Earth’s mantle to the crust.
The team, including researchers from Cardiff University, has discovered a ‘Goldilocks zone’ at the base of the Earth’s crust where the temperate is just right at around 1000°C for metals to be transported to shallower levels near the surface, where they can be mined.
The metals in question – most notably copper, cobalt, tellurium, and platinum – are highly-sought after due to their use in electrical wiring and technologies such as battery storage devices, solar panels, and fuel cells.
Publishing their findings yesterday (January 31, 2022) in the journal Nature Communications, the team is hopeful that the results can lead to more targeted, less costly, and more environmentally friendly practices to explore for and extract the key metals.
The metals are primarily stored in the Earth’s mantle – a thick layer of rock that sits between the Earth’s core and crust – at depths of more than 25km, making them inaccessible for exploitation.
Yet in certain parts of the world, nature can bring these metals to the surface through the flow of liquid rock, known as magma, that originates in the Earth’s mantle and rises upwards into the crust.
However, up until now the journey of metals to their final deposition site has been uncertain.
In the new study, the team identified a temperature dependant zone, located at the base of the Earth’s crust, which acts like a valve and intermittently allows the metals to pass upwards to reach the upper crust.
Co-author of the study Dr Iain McDonald said: “When magmas reach the base of the crust the critical metals often get trapped here and cannot reach the surface if the temperature is either too hot or too cold.
“As with Goldilocks, we have discovered that if the temperature is ‘just right’ at around 1000°C, then metals like copper, gold and tellurium can escape the trap and rise up towards the surface to form ore deposits.”
The study forms a component of the NERC-funded FAMOS project (From Arc Magmas to Ore Systems), and involved collaborators from Cardiff University, Leicester University, the University of Western Australia and the international mining company BHP.
Professor Jamie Wilkinson, of the Natural History Museum, London, is Principal Investigator for the FAMOS project, and added: “This paper represents a fantastic piece of work from the project team that sheds new light on magmatic processes that operate deep in the Earth’s crust but which exert a first-order control on the accessibility of critical metals for humankind. The results will enable more targeted mineral exploration, thus lowering the environmental footprint associated with the discovery and extraction of green metals.”
Reference:
“Mobilisation of deep crustal sulfide melts as a first order control on upper lithospheric metallogeny” by David A. Holwell, Marco L. Fiorentini, Thomas R. Knott, Iain McDonald, Daryl E. Blanks, T. Campbell McCuaig and Weronika Gorczyk, 31 January 2022, Nature Communications.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28275-y
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28275-y
So volcanoes transfer metals fron deep in the earth to the surface. Who didn’t know this?
The Dwarves dug too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dûm... shadow and flame." — Saruman
LOL. At least it’s researchers and not “scientists.”
Well done.
Folks, THIS is ALSO why metal-based currency is a bad idea. One breakthrough, and BOOM! all the world’s gold becomes dirt cheap.
IT’S HAPPENED BEFORE! Before bauxite processing was possible, aluminum was crazy expensive, more valuable than silver and occasionally gold. Now, it’s a meme for cheap metal.
I hope gold becomes dirt cheap. That makes for better circuit boards. The PC boards in the early ‘80s will outlast the newer stuff with cheaper and enviro-friendly materials.
Ooops there goes my Kruggerands....
Oh, yeah... it would be great! As long as we don’t base our economy on the price of gold.
OK, so we should look for critical metals in magma and basalt near volcanoes and lava flows?
Why is it pray tell, that we have not found such troves of metals in these places so far?
The peak of the Washington Monument is made of aluminum. It was at the time the largest chunk of aluminum of earth- and way more valuable than gold. It would be fun to see a price chart that extended back that far.
Goldilocks Zone? Sounds kinda racisty to me. A blond, white cis-female. Should called the RuPaul Zone nowadays
The reason the Washington Monument is topped with 100 oz of aluminum.
Agreed. We establish a value for currency by simply having a minimum wage.
ummm, let’s say they hit the Motherload of all Gold deposits
over time, would that not effectively drive gold to zero if it became a common metal?
same wi all the talk about mining asteroids
Most metal deposits occur where there is deposition of ancient hot water flows through cracks in the crustal rocks. The hot water dissolves the metals deeper in the crust and transports them towards the surface. As the water solution cools the metals are deposited closer to the surface. Oftentimes quartz is deposited along with the metals which is why prospectors seek out quartz “veins” in the rocks. This has been common knowledge in geology for eons so why is this news? Because some of these metals could be used for electric vehicles? Big deal.
Right! Because non-metallic currencies don't inflate./s
The US dollar closed the 20th century at about 1/20th of the value it represented at the beginning. Most of that loss of value occurred after the dollar was unhitched from silver. I have a hard time believing that we were ever near discovering TWENTY times as much silver as we've collected in more than 7,000 years.
And crude oil and gas are abiotic.
5.56mm
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