Scientists 'strike gold' in shocking discovery from Hawaiian volcanic rocks
A German university, Göttingen University, has literally "struck gold" in recent findings from volcanic rocks.
A new study of these volcanic rocks from Hawaii, that leaked out from deep under the lithosphere, contained various precious metals.
Dr. Nils Messling of the Göttingen University's Department of Geochemistry said in a news release they were surprised when the test results came in.
"When the first results came in, we realized that we had literally struck gold! Our data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into the Earth's mantle above," Messling said.
Approximately 99% of the Earth's gold is buried deep in the Earth's Metallic Core, far out of humankind's reach.
The gold is currently buried about 1,800 miles deep in the core.
The discovery of this ruthenium, which was formed and locked down with gold, might be a telling sign that these volcanic rocks are coming from deep within the Earth.
"Our findings not only show that the Earth's core is not as isolated as previously assumed. We can now also prove that huge volumes of super-heated mantle material – several hundreds of quadrillion metric tonnes of rock – originate at the core-mantle boundary and rise to the Earth's surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii," said Professor Matthias Willbold in a news release.
There is a way to test for isotopes of ruthenium, especially when differences are small variations of the same element.
The isotopes of ruthenium in the Earth's core are slightly different from those on the surface, with the difference being too small to really detect.
However, new procedures developed by researchers at the University of Göttingen have made it possible.
"Whether these processes that we observe today have also been operating in the past remains to be proven. Our findings open up an entirely new perspective on the evolution of the inner dynamics of our home planet," Messling said in a statement.
With these precious metals beginning to leak to the Earth's surface, it could suggest that the supplies of gold and others important for renewable energy came from the Earth's core.
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