A recent study has revealed that Earth’s core contains a reservoir of gold and other rare metals that is slowly leaking toward the planet’s surface.
After a detailed analysis of volcanic rocks, researchers found evidence of rare metals—including gold—making their way upward from deep within the Earth. Remarkably, over 99.99% of the planet’s gold is believed to lie 2,900 kilometers beneath the surface, locked away in the Earth’s core—previously thought to be completely unreachable.
Dr. Nils Messling from the University of Göttingen’s Department of Geochemistry commented on the breakthrough: “When the first results came in, we realized that we had literally struck gold. Our data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into the Earth’s mantle above.”
The team analyzed volcanic rocks from Hawaii in their search for ruthenium, another rare element, but their findings went far beyond expectations.
Professor Matthias Willbold, also part of the study, explained: “Our findings not only show that the Earth’s core is not as isolated as previously assumed. We can now also prove that huge volumes of super-heated mantle material—several hundreds of quadrillion metric tonnes—originate at the core-mantle boundary and rise to the Earth’s surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii.”