"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE." - HAL
;-)
Posted on 12/13/2006 10:58:55 PM PST by grundle
Searching for a pot of gold? Try the center of the Earth.
More than 99 percent of Earth's gold is missing—it all sank to the center of the planet billions of years ago. In fact, says geologist Bernard Wood of Macquarie University in Australia, there's enough gold in Earth's core to coat its surface in 1.5 feet of the stuff. How did it get there?
Earth formed from a series of smaller planetesimals that crashed together over the course of 30 million to 40 million years. Wood deduced how much gold ought to be present in Earth's crust by comparing the crust's composition to that of meteorites similar to the planetesimals. He concluded that the crust was depleted of gold, platinum, and nickel and suggests that all these iron-loving elements were pulled into Earth's iron-rich core while its surface was still an ocean of molten magma.
In fact, if meteorites hadn't later deposited gold on Earth's surface millions of years after its core had fully formed and its crust had cooled, gold would be even more rare and expensive than it is today. Wood has calculated that 1.6 quadrillion tons of gold must lie in Earth's core. This may sound like a lot, but it is really only a tiny percentage of the core's overall mass—about one part per million. The core holds six times as much platinum, Wood notes, "but people get less excited about that than gold."
"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE." - HAL
;-)
GOld at 1 ppm in the core. Once you take the size of the core into account, that's a lot of gold. But if this estimate is based on meteorite content, it would be a lot easier to mine asteroids for gold that to go to the core to find it.
This article is brought to you by the USSMA (U.S. Shovel Manufacturers Association). Stop by and pick up a few shovels today, our motto: "when it gets deep we're here to help."
180 degrees out of phase.
Better sell gold. If they ever figure out a way to mine it the price will fall sharply.
Of couse if you find a way to mine it and don't tell anyone, the markets wouldn't crash...
Excellent!
Hogwash. According to what I've read, the center of the earth is home to numerous prehistoric creatures. There's a volcano in Iceland that will take you right down there.
Note to self:
Order jackhammer.
Take 3 weeks off work.
Dig.
No no. According to the gold commercials you always buy gold because "gold has never gone to zero." Of course, they never point out that if you buy shares at $600 and shares fall to $250, you still lose everything.
I wonder if Home Depot has a drill bit that big...
I think it would simply be easier to marry McCartney, then divorce him.
Yes, if it's distributed at 1 ppm among several sextillion tons of molten rock, there's no way to extract it anyway.
Only if you are a " miner, 69'r"
The gas giants. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Funny, we can cause enormous climate changes in the Earth's truly gigantic atmosphere, but can barely scratch the surface of the Earth.
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