Antarctica volcano spews thousands of dollars worth of gold crystals every day | read

Erebus is one of 3 volcanoes that make up Ross Island, a site discovered in 1841 by Captain James Clark Ross. Captain Ross then came there for scientific research into magnetism, and to this day Mount Erebus is closely monitored by scientists at the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory.

Mount Erebus is a very active volcano that regularly spews clouds of gas and steam. Sometimes entire boulders are even catapulted from the crater, which are aptly called ‘volcanic bombs’. But it is in the clouds of gas and steam that there are gold crystals. According to estimates, Mount Erebus would spew out about 80 grams of gold per day.

“That gold comes from the magma in the subsurface,” explains volcanology professor Karen Fontijn (ULB) in De Wereld Today on Radio 1. “That magma is a mix of gaseous warm particles and heavy metals such as copper, gold, zinc and lead. . When volcanoes emit gases, water, CO2 and sulfur are released. These heavy metals have a preference for sulfur and bind to it. When sulfur is emitted, tiny particles of the metals are also emitted.”

The gold crystals have been found hundreds of kilometers from Erebus and researchers have even found traces of gold dust 1,000 kilometers from the volcano. According to Professor Fontijn, this indicates that the volcano is actually spewing out a lot of gold: “If it is so easy to detect, then it is a lot of gold anyway. By the way, you shouldn’t imagine real chunks, those gold crystals are really micro particles.”

But gold crystals are also worth a lot; according to experts, 80 grams of gold crystals would be worth about 6,000 dollars or 5,600 euros. Although you shouldn’t immediately book a trip to Antarctica because you can’t just pick up that gold.

“That is gold in gaseous form, scientific research is being done into that, but effective recovery seems impossible to me,” estimates Professor Fontijn. “In older volcanoes that are extinct, gold sometimes remains in the subsurface. it is possible to recover that gold.”