Icelandic Rocks Suggest Meteorites Brought Gold To Earth

sciencehabit writes "Gold, platinum, and other precioius metals were sucked into Earth's molten iron core soon after our planet formed. So where did all of the material for our fancy jewelry come from? According to high-precision measurements of two isotopes, or atomic variants, of tungsten in 4-billion-old rocks from Greenland published online today in Nature [the abstract adds a bit more; the full version is paywalled, though], precious-metal-bearing meteorites struck Earth around this time, coating the planet in a veneer containing gold, platinum, and other elements long after their native counterparts had disappeared into the planet's core."

Comments

Re:Gold moves extensively through the crust

[ElectricTurtle]

Superplumes are believed by some to emanate from the core itself, though potentially spawning a chain of other plumes at different strata. It's not really a settled matter in the geological sciences.