Platinum and gold are from meteorites.

[delta]

Further confirmation was just published that platinum, gold, and other precious metals now available on Earth were extraterrestrial arrivals and not part of the original planet.

 

When the Earth was formed, all the heavy precious metals are believed to have sunk into the core of the planet along with iron, tungsten, etc. leaving the still molten outer mantle devoid of gold, platinum, etc.

 

Later, after a solid crust was formed, Earth was bombarded by meteorites rich in precious metals, meteorites which were very much more abundant during the early years of our solar system than they are now.

 

Here's a link to the latest scientific work on that subject, with additional related articles also referenced.

 

Does it make your holdings of precious metal numismatic pieces any more meaningful to know they are composed of extraterrestrial materials? Does this information elevate your level of consciousness regarding precious metals??

[noow]

WOW. Makes me rethink my gold coins...

[MorganMan]

Not really, cause at some point and time, we were ALL extraterrestrial material...

 

But it is interesting to know those facts...

 

MM

[noow]

Not really, cause at some point and time, we were ALL extraterrestrial material...

 

True

[RWB]

The original science appears to have been overly simplified.

 

200 million years is well within the formation period of the planet and the surface was under intense bombardment for well over 500 million years. The earth is just old star-stuff from earlier generations so its surface and the mixture of elements would be expected to exhibit a range. However, aggregation of gold, silver, copper, etc. into specific crustal strata is a geologic process, not extraterrestrial.

 

Just a thought.

[WoodenJefferson]

I remember this from watching the Discovery Channel

 

The Sudbury region of Ontario, Canada, produces about 30% of the world's supply of nickel. The Sudbury Basin deposit is theorized to have been created by a meteorite impact event early in the geologic history of Earth. Russia contains about 40% of the world's known resources at the Norilsk deposit in Siberia. The Russian mining company MMC Norilsk Nickel obtains the nickel and the associated palladium for world distribution. Other major deposits of nickel are found in New Caledonia, France, Australia, Cuba, and Indonesia.

 

So basically, our base metals for the nickel come from Canada and the palladium from Russia

 

Carl Sagan would be proud, "We are made of star stuff."

[cpm9ball]

My only concern is that some of the jughead sellers on SleazeBay are liable to read this and start screaming like Chicken Little.

 

[font:Comic Sans MS] L@@K! We're running out of gold! Congress is hoping for another doomsday asteroid to replenish the supply. Buy this now! [/font]

 

Chris

[RWB]

Maybe we should go after that "diamond" star - BPM 37093....?

[WoodenJefferson]

Maybe we should go after that "diamond" star - BPM 37093....?

 

Since "Lucy" is rotating a few times every second, you would need a flux capacitor that could generate 1.21 gigawatts of power in order to escape the gravitational field when ready to leave.

[noow]

Maybe we should go after that "diamond" star - BPM 37093....?

 

Since "Lucy" is rotating a few times every second, you would need a flux capacitor that could generate 1.21 gigawatts of power in order to escape the gravitational field when ready to leave.

 

If we got the diamonds, they would be so common they would only be worth.... Rocks

[RWB]

Hmmm....sounds like MS 70 graded modern stuff.

[Hard Times]

I remember this from watching the Discovery Channel

 

The Sudbury region of Ontario, Canada, produces about 30% of the world's supply of nickel. The Sudbury Basin deposit is theorized to have been created by a meteorite impact event early in the geologic history of Earth. Russia contains about 40% of the world's known resources at the Norilsk deposit in Siberia. The Russian mining company MMC Norilsk Nickel obtains the nickel and the associated palladium for world distribution. Other major deposits of nickel are found in New Caledonia, France, Australia, Cuba, and Indonesia.

 

So basically, our base metals for the nickel come from Canada and the palladium from Russia

 

Carl Sagan would be proud, "We are made of star stuff."

 

While Sudbury is indeed the result of an impact on Earth, it induced melting of the local crust. The Subdury ores are derived from the crust, including the precious metals, not the impactor, as shown by the Os isotope compositions of the ores (Walker et al., l991).

 

The Norilsk ores are associated with the Siberian Traps, one of the biggest flood basalts in Earth history that erupted at the P/T boundary at 251 myr ago. The Os isotopes also show that these ores are crustal derived.

 

So whille yes, we are made of star stuff, including meteorites, because all elements with mass greater than H and He are produced in the interiors of stars or in supernovae, these two ore bodies have precious metals in them that came from meteorites that accreted to make Earth, then were cycled into the crust - not directly from meteorites that hit Earth.

 

A significant portion of the Palladium in the US is also coming from the Stillwater intrusion in Montana, which is a body similar to the Sudbury Complex:

Stillwater Palladium

 

[Hard Times]

Further confirmation was just published that platinum, gold, and other precious metals now available on Earth were extraterrestrial arrivals and not part of the original planet.

 

When the Earth was formed, all the heavy precious metals are believed to have sunk into the core of the planet along with iron, tungsten, etc. leaving the still molten outer mantle devoid of gold, platinum, etc.

 

Later, after a solid crust was formed, Earth was bombarded by meteorites rich in precious metals, meteorites which were very much more abundant during the early years of our solar system than they are now.

 

Here's a link to the latest scientific work on that subject, with additional related articles also referenced.

 

Does it make your holdings of precious metal numismatic pieces any more meaningful to know they are composed of extraterrestrial materials? Does this information elevate your level of consciousness regarding precious metals??

 

My colleagues and I are debating this paper right now. Some believe the Pd and Au are not from meteorites seeding the Earth after core formation as suggested in this paper, but instead Pd and Au from the core itself reseeding the mantle and crust. I am on the bubble on this one. The data on martian meteorites show that the Pd and Au in these rocks, and hence, Mars, were obtained much earlier than this paper in the link suggests for Earth, at least 4.4 billion years ago. If so, then why did Earth wait to get its Pd from meteorites much later, at 3.9 billion years ago as this paper suggests? So we believe the timing claimed in this paper is abit iffy and it may be possible to have the Earth's core give the same signal as noted above. Which one is correct is model dependent and the assumptions made on the parameters used in the models. The good news about this paper is that it is going to spur on alot more research to test the ideas and to come up with alternative ideas. Nature papers are always somewhat speculative and should not be taken as absolute in science......... But the creative speculation is what drives science forward.

 

[WoodenJefferson]

I knew that....I lied, I didn't.

[Kamillion]

there would be no point in reaching the diamond star, we already have an abundance here. they are just held under lock n key.

 

if we did, they would just do the same, just to keep their value. bc ultimately, diamonds should be quite valueless

[RWB]

uhmmmm...I was only kidding....

[Ducksoup]

Stupid DeBeers and their hoarding of those clear rocks and their successful marketing campaign costs us guys a lot of money when we wanna get hitched. (Wish I'da thunk it before Debeers )