A new geological study has uncovered compelling evidence that Earth’s core holds vast reserves of gold and other precious metals—and that these elements are slowly seeping into the planet’s mantle and eventually reaching the surface.
Researchers analyzing volcanic rocks from deep beneath Earth’s lithosphere have identified traces of gold and other siderophile (iron-loving) elements that appear to originate from the planet’s core. These findings suggest that material from the core is not as isolated as previously thought and is making its way to the crust via convecting magma.
“When the first results came in, we realized that we had literally struck gold,” said Dr. Nils Messling, a geochemist at the University of Göttingen in Germany. “Our data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into the Earth’s mantle above.”
Although gold is accessible in Earth’s crust, scientists estimate that over 99 percent of the planet’s total gold is locked deep in the core—a volume sufficient to blanket the planet’s entire land surface with a 50-centimeter-thick layer of the precious metal. This distribution stems from a process known as the “iron catastrophe,” when heavy elements like gold sank into Earth’s center during its early molten state. Later meteorite impacts added more metals to the crust.
Until now, the precise origin of heavy metals found near Earth’s surface remained uncertain. Some were thought to be delivered by meteoritic bombardment, while others possibly leaked from the core. The breakthrough came through the study of isotopes—variants of elements with differing numbers of neutrons—particularly ruthenium.
Ruthenium isotopes from the core differ slightly from those found near the surface, but these differences had been too subtle to detect—until now. Using advanced analytical techniques, Messling and his team examined volcanic rock from Hawaii and discovered elevated levels of ruthenium-100, an isotope associated with material from the Earth’s core.
This discovery points to a broader phenomenon: multiple core-sequestered elements, including ruthenium, palladium, rhodium, platinum, and gold, may be slowly leaking from the core into the mantle and eventually to the crust.
Despite the intriguing prospect, this doesn’t mean that Earth’s buried treasure is easily accessible. The leakage occurs at an extremely slow rate, and the core lies roughly 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) beneath the surface—far beyond the reach of modern drilling technology.
Still, the findings offer valuable insights into Earth’s internal dynamics and the geological processes that shape other rocky planets.
“Our findings not only show that the Earth’s core is not as isolated as previously assumed,” said Dr. Matthias Willbold, also of the University of Göttingen. “We can now also prove that huge volumes of superheated mantle material—several hundred quadrillion metric tons—originate at the core-mantle boundary and rise to the surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii.”
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