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Science: Antarctic gold dust
- 07 September 1991 by JEFF HECHT , BOSTON
- Magazine issue 1785.
"Although other volcanoes are known to emit gold, Mount Erebus is the only one to emit it in metallic form, posing a puzzle for geologists. No one will get rich from Mount Erebus, however, because it releases only 80 grams of gold a day. 'It's more a geological curiosity than anything else,' says Philip Kyle of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. But many gold deposits originate in volcanic rock, so if geologists understand how volcanoes can concentrate the metal, they may be better able to locate gold deposits (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 18, p 1405).
"Lava from Mount Erebus emits hot gas, which carries gold together with other materials which are volatile at 1000 °C. On contact with the air, the gas cools to under 100 °C, precipitating many materials, including metals such as zinc and copper. This occurs within a metre or two of the hot lava. The gas itself contains too little gold to form crystals in the air, says Kyle. He suggests instead that the gold may crystallise at the crusty surface of the lava as the gas emerges.
"Gas is emitted fairly slowly at Mount Erebus, so the particles could grow for minutes or hours before the gas carries them into the atmosphere. According to Kyle's theory, there would not be time for gold particles to grow at the surface of other volcanoes, such as Mount Kilauea in Hawaii and Mount Etna in Italy, because they release their gas more violently."
Another Answer
The gold is traced by scientists to determine wind patterns, since when the gold settles on the ice, the ice melts, highlighting the wind's patterns.
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