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Earthquakes Deposit Gold In Fault Zones
sciencehabit writes "Gold deposits may be created in a flash—literally. Along fault zones deep within Earth's crust, small cavities filled with fluids rich in dissolved substances such as gold and silicate minerals can expand suddenly to as much as 130,000 times their former size during a major earthquake, a new analysis suggests. In such circumstances, pressure drops accordingly, driving a process the scientists call flash evaporation. And when the pressure in the cavity suddenly drops, so does the solubility of minerals in the water there. Along with substantial quantities of quartz, large earthquakes could deposit as much as 0.1 milligrams of gold along each square meter of a fault zone's surface in just a fraction of a second Typical rates of seismicity along a fault, such as the San Andreas fault zone shown in the main image, could generate a 100-metric-ton deposit of gold in less than 100,000 years."
Dude, you found a way to popularize Fracking again!
Natural Gas and GOLD!!!
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God: A million years? To me that's just like one of your seconds
Man: I see! Then... What is a million DOLLARS like to you, God?
God: I'm feeling you, man. You can guess, a million dollars to me is just like one of your pennies.
Man: OK, God! Can I ask you for a penny, then?
God: Sure! Just hold for a second...
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When I was younger, we'd explore the old 1800's silver mines at Alta, Utah. When the old miners hit a fault line (underground), they'd span out and mine that fault for all it was worth. It was pretty neat for us finding a rock face perfectly smooth and straight (the fault), that had been stoped out a hundred years ago, miles underground. It was like going back in time. In hindsight, it was probably dangerous... Ah, youth.