Researchers have discovered that valuable metals such as gold may be seeping from the Earth’s core.
The Earth’s core is believed to contain the largest gold reserve, but accessing it is virtually impossible due to its location beneath 3,000 km of solid rock. However, a study from Göttingen University in Germany suggests that natural processes are slowly transferring some of these metals to the Earth’s surface.
Dr. Nils Messling from the university’s Department of Geochemistry commented on their discovery: “When the first results came in, we realised 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.”
The study involved a three-year analysis of Hawaii’s basaltic rocks, which originated from molten rock rising from the ocean floor. According to CNN, the presence of heavy metals in these rocks led researchers to suspect that the core is leaking metals like gold.
Dr. Messling elaborated: “About 40 years ago, people first came up with the theory that maybe the core is losing some material into the mantle, but the signals we got so far were really ambiguous. Now, in my opinion, we have the first very strong evidence that some of the core is actually ending up in the mantle.”
The team focused on a specific Ruthenium isotope, Ruthenium-100 (100Ru), to reach this conclusion. The Earth’s core contains more of this isotope compared to the mantle, which is situated between the crust and the core.
“The mantle has almost no ruthenium in it,” Dr. Messling noted. “It’s one of the rarest elements on Earth. But Earth is basically made of meteorites that crashed together, and meteorites (contain) ruthenium, which went into the core when the core formed. So the mantle has next to no ruthenium, and the core has all of the ruthenium. The same with gold and platinum.”
By analyzing the presence of 100Ru in Hawaiian rocks, they determined that these rocks likely incorporated materials originating from the Earth’s core.
Matthias Willbold, a co-author of the study, explained: “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.”