Gold Nugget Formation from Earthquake Induced Pieso Electricity in Quartz
Now, to begin, here is a quick preview of the article referenced in today’s expedition footage entitled Gold Nugget Formation from Earthquake Induced Pieso Electricity in Quartz. And I’ll read the abstract here. Gold nuggets occur predominantly in quartz veins. And the current paradigm posits that gold precipitates from dilute hot water plus carbon dioxide rich fluids owing to changes in temperature, pressure and/or fluid chemistry. However, the widespread occurrence of large gold nuggets is at odds with the dilute nature of these fluids and the chemical inertness of quartz. Quartz is the only abundant pzoelectric mineral on earth. And the cyclical nature of earthquake activity that drives orogenic gold deposit formation means that quartz crystals in veins will experience thousands of episodes of deviatoric stress. Here we use quartz deformation experiments and piezo electric modeling to investigate whether pazo electric discharge from quartz can explain the ubiquitous gold quartz association and the formation of gold nuggets. We find that stress on quartz crystals can generate enough voltage to electrochemically deposit aquous gold from solution as well as accumulate gold nano particles. Nucleation of gold via pazodriven reactions is rate limiting because quartz is an insulator. However, since gold is a conductor, our results show that existing gold grains are the focus of ongoing growth. We suggest this mechanism can help explain the creation of large nuggets and the commonly observed highly interconnected gold networks within quartz vein fractures. And for now, I’ll leave it at that as this site visit opened up a massive new area of investigation that will be the subject for a future research episode. So now ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I hope you enjoy Sunday site visit 116 from the Neolithic Mikabyama Stone Circle Kofun Megalithic Mountainside Temple Complex. A spectacular example of Joman era ancient physics and chemistry technology. Let’s go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beaEQzHy_Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beaEQzHy_Go