Ferry Sandi, CNBC Indonesia
Sunday, 27/08/2023 21:30 WIB
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Researchers have calculated the amount of gold on Earth. Apparently, 99% of the gold content on Earth is collected in one location. Even though it has been detected, don’t be happy just yet, because the problem is, most of the gold content on Earth is collected in one location that is difficult to reach.
Bernard Wood of Macquarie University estimates that 99% of all the gold on Earth is buried in its core, making it inaccessible to humans.
Research by Wood and colleagues managed to quantify the amount of gold buried in the Earth’s core, which is mostly composed of iron and nickel.
In a paper published in 2006, Wood used asteroids as a source of inspiration. According to him, some asteroids have a similar composition to Earth because they go through a similar formation process.
The researchers measured the composition of carbonaceous chondrite in meteorites that originated from asteroids similar to Earth. The composition of the meteorite is then used as a reference for measuring the composition of material on Earth.
Wood and team found that elements that were insoluble in liquid iron would not exist in the Earth’s core. Therefore, there are elements that are equally abundant in the Earth’s crust compared to the Earth’s core.
Photo: Zlaťáky.cz/Pexels
Gold bar
The composition of the elements in the Earth’s crust and in the meteorites studied by Wood were similar. Assuming the Earth’s core also has a similar composition, Wood calculated the number of elements that could be dissolved by iron.
As a result, Wood was able to estimate the gold content on Earth. “What we can conclude is 99 percent of the Earth’s gold content is in its core,” said Wood.
The logic Wood used was the reason NASA sent a space mission to the asteroid Psyche. The mission to search for rare elements into outer space, much cheaper than drilling into the earth’s core.
The problem is, if the mission to Psyche succeeds in finding abundant gold and bringing it to Earth. The price of gold on Earth will sink.
According to IFL Science, the Earth actually has an abundant gold content. All the gold on Earth could be used to coat the entire planet 50 cm thick.
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#Revealed #Earths #Gold #Buried #Region
