All our gold was brought here.....by asteroids?

[cesariojpn]

http://io9.com/5838101/all-our-gold-was ... -asteroids

[NHsorter]

I am no scientist, but there are these volcano things that I have heard of before and they spit up gunk from deep in the earth and I gather that it might have something to do with some of the gold deposits. It's a neat article, but I am not yet convinced that it all came from just asteroids.

[rainsonme]

I read an article about the copper/gold/moly deposits in upper BC, and the article suggested a massive metior impact had brought up metal bearing magma across a huge area of BC.

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

The Au (and all other elements) in the earth was made in stars billions of years ago, millions/billions of light years away. When those stars went supernova, the gold inside those stars got blasted out into space at the speed of light. When the earth was forming, these elements were deposited in the earths crust and cooled. A few billions years after that humans dug these rare elements out of the earth and proclaimed them as money.

So, that gold eagle or morgan silver dollar you are holding in your hand was made in the insides of stars and is most likely billions and billions of years old. Pretty neat huh?

[hejira11]

So, that gold eagle or morgan silver dollar you are holding in your hand was made in the insides of stars and is most likely billions and billions of years old. Pretty neat huh?

"We are star dust, we are golden we're made of billion year old carbon and we got to get ourselves back to the garden." Joni Mitchell

[AGCoinHunter]

I call BS on this one.

[68Camaro]

Guess I'm a buzz-kill type, but I don't see any magic in this. Everything is made of the same stuff at the subatomic level, and at the atomic level most of it (not withstanding the nuclear furnaces that are the stars themselves) have been around for at least billions of years, so whether it came here on an asteriod or was part of the earlier formation of the earth doesn't really move me one way or other...

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

I call BS on this one.

Please elaborate.

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

Guess I'm a buzz-kill type, but I don't see any magic in this. Everything is made of the same stuff at the subatomic level, and at the atomic level most of it (not withstanding the nuclear furnaces that are the stars themselves) have been around for at least billions of years, so whether it came here on an asteriod or was part of the earlier formation of the earth doesn't really move me one way or other...

All we are is dust in the wind.

I my mind, that is an awesome thought.

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

So, that gold eagle or morgan silver dollar you are holding in your hand was made in the insides of stars and is most likely billions and billions of years old. Pretty neat huh?

"We are star dust, we are golden we're made of billion year old carbon and we got to get ourselves back to the garden." Joni Mitchell

Exactly.

[AGCoinHunter]

I call BS on this one.

Please elaborate.

Nothing to elaborate, just dont believe the "scientific" study. Sure there are other elements floating around out there in space. But for all gold to hitch a ride via a metor and land here I just dont believe it. Gold exist and forms within the earths crust.

[Nickelmeister]

I call BS on this one.

Please elaborate.

Nothing to elaborate, just dont believe the "scientific" study. Sure there are other elements floating around out there in space. But for all gold to hitch a ride via a metor and land here I just dont believe it. Gold exist and forms within the earths crust.

Gold doesn't form in the earth's crust. Heavy metals can only be created by the fusion reactions that exist in a dying star. All heavy elements were born of supernovae. Some of those atoms subsequently formed into planets and other space bodies. As for the asteroid comment, yes some asteroids are rich in metals. However, the theory that subscribe to was discussed on a recent episode of National Geographic's "Known Universe" series:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/s ... 0/Overview

They claim that asteroids, such as the huge one that struck the Sudbury basin billions of years ago "stirred up" molten metals from the earth's core and as they cooled and flowed back into the earth they solidified into the "veins" miners are familiar with.

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

Nothing to elaborate, just dont believe the "scientific" study. Sure there are other elements floating around out there in space. But for all gold to hitch a ride via a metor and land here I just dont believe it. Gold exist and forms within the earths crust.

Gold doesn't form in the earth's crust. Heavy metals can only be created by the fusion reactions that exist in a dying star. All heavy elements were born of supernovae. Some of those atoms subsequently formed into planets and other space bodies. As for the asteroid comment, yes some asteroids are rich in metals. However, the theory that subscribe to was discussed on a recent episode of National Geographic's "Known Universe" series:

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/s ... 0/Overview

They claim that asteroids, such as the huge one that struck the Sudbury basin billions of years ago "stirred up" molten metals from the earth's core and as they cooled and flowed back into the earth they solidified into the "veins" miners are familiar with.[/quote]

Thanks Nickelmeister. Good post.

To AGcoin hunter: Just an FYI, most metorites are composed iron and nickel.

[ZenOps]

Exactly, large asteroids are probably the reason we have things like nickel, gold and platinum at nearer the earths crust.

Sudbury (30%) and Norlisk (40%) of the worlds nickel was probably created by very large asteroids hitting the earth very early in development. That forced some elements (especially the heavier elements) in the magma which tend to naturally fall to the center of the earth - upwards in a reactionary upheaval. If those two asteroids did not hit the earth way back when - Nickel might be much closer to being as rare as silver. Had those two asteroids been even larger, there might be much more surface gold and platinum as it would have gone deeper. As is - it was deep enough to heave a decent amount of nickel.

But the asteroid itself probably did not contain as much heavy metal as the OP would suggest.

BTW: Once the nickel runs out at Sudbury and Norlisk, the remaining nickel is expensive as heck to mine. They are starting to go deep to get the last of the easy nickel, even so - two miners died at Sudbury nickel mine just recently.