Australian geologists have determined that gold nuggets form in quartz deposits as a result of earthquakes. Their vibrations cause the quartz to generate electricity and reduce gold ions present in underground geothermal fluids.
Oku.Az “Nature Geoscience” writes about this.
This conclusion was reached by a group of geologists led by Vladimir Luzin, a researcher at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering (ANSTO) in Sydney, while studying the interaction of quartz deposits and hydrothermal fluids. Scientists are interested in this correlation because all local gold deposits on Earth were probably formed in a similar way.
Luzin and his colleagues speculate that quartz is a natural piezoelectric material that generates an electric current when subjected to various mechanical deformations, including seismic vibrations.
This electricity causes the gold ions to react with other molecules, “take” electrons from them and precipitate in the form of nanoparticles.
The experiments showed that gold nanoparticles began to form rapidly between the layers of quartz rocks and then their size grew to grains of golden sand with a diameter of several micrometers. In cases where gold nanoparticles are already present, this process is significantly accelerated, which indicates their important role in the process of gold precipitation and in the formation of gold nuggets. Scientists believe that this will help in the search for new gold deposits.
