Gold and other precious metals are slowly leaking from Earth’s core into upper layers. A new study suggests that they are reaching the surface during volcanic island formation like Hawaii.
Researchers have studied Hawaiian rocks formed by rising magma plumes and found signs of heavy metals. This supports the idea that Earth’s core may not be fully sealed off. It could be seeping into the rocky mantle.
Experts already believed that almost all of Earth’s gold lies deep in its molten core. It was created around 4.5 billion years ago during early planetary formation. However, this research shows that small amounts may be reaching the surface.
The findings excite scientists because, over time, more gold and rare elements could continue moving up from Earth’s deep interior. This discovery gives hope that new sources of gold might slowly form near volcanic zones in the future.
Earth’s core has two layers: a solid inner core made of iron and nickel and a liquid outer core of molten metal. The solid core is about 70% the size of the moon. The outer core extends 1,800 miles below the surface.
“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,” CNN quoted geochemist Nils Messling as saying.
“Now, in my opinion, we have the first very strong evidence that some of the core is actually ending up in the mantle,” Messling added.
Messling and his team have studied volcanic rocks from Hawaii to understand how Earth’s core and mantle interact. They crushed half a kilo of basalt rock into powder, melted it with chemicals and turned it into a liquid.
From this, they extracted rare elements from the platinum group, focusing on ruthenium. This silver-grey metal, as rare as gold, is mostly found in Earth’s core, not in the mantle.
Process may take 4.5 billion years
Messling suggests that tiny amounts of gold may slowly leak from Earth’s core. This process may explain how Earth’s gold supply keeps getting renewed.
“It’s a very interesting idea that, although this process is tiny and has zero effect if you look at just one island, if you scale it up to 4.5 billion years it could be that it changes the composition of the Earth,” he said.
