Earth’s Core Is Leaking Gold - And It’s Rising Up! - video Dailymotion

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00:00So, here's a quick question. Where's the biggest stash of gold on Earth?

00:06Well, thanks to the movies, my first thoughts go to Fort Knox, the iconic U.S. vault known for its security and secrecy.

00:14But no, that's not it. Potentially, more than 99% of Earth's gold might not be in any vault.

00:22It's likely hidden deep inside the planet, in the core.

00:26And now, scientists say, we might not need to dig 1,800 miles to get to it.

00:32Because some of that gold, it might be making its way up, oozing through a volcano.

00:38But first, what makes gold so interesting and valuable?

00:42Well, gold has always been more than just a shiny metal.

00:45It shaped economies and driven empires.

00:48The first pure gold coins were created in 540 BCE by King Crocius of Lydia,

00:55an Iron Age kingdom located in what is now modern-day Turkey.

00:59As a metal, it's rare, but not too rare.

01:03It's a great conductor of electricity and heat.

01:06It doesn't rust, tarnish, or react much with anything.

01:11It's easy to melt, mold, carry, and measure.

01:14And on top of all that, it's beautiful, durable, and incredibly useful.

01:19Not just for jewelry, but also in electronics, medicine, and space tech.

01:25Yep, it's even used to coat astronaut helmet visors and spacecraft

01:29to reflect harmful infrared radiation.

01:33Humans have mined about 200,000 tons of gold,

01:37which is enough to make a cube that's roughly 72 feet on each side.

01:41Since gold doesn't really break down,

01:45a lot of the gold we use today could actually be really old,

01:49even dating back to prehistoric times.

01:52It's also one of the most hoarded and secretly stashed valuables on Earth.

01:56Between private collections, national reserves,

01:59and heirloom jewelry passed down through generations,

02:02we might never know exactly how much is really out there.

02:06But we do assume that 99.99% of it is still trapped within Earth's core.

02:13So, how can there be gold within the core, and what does that mean?

02:19Right under our feet is Earth's outer skin, the crust.

02:23It might feel solid and massive to us,

02:25but compared to the rest of the planet, it's paper-thin.

02:29Beneath that is the mantle, which is basically a giant layer of hot rock.

02:34It's not quite solid, not quite liquid,

02:37more like a slow-moving putty that flows over time.

02:42Then we have the outer core,

02:44which is a swirling sea of molten metal, mostly iron and nickel.

02:48It's spinning around and creating Earth's magnetic field.

02:51And in the very center is the inner core,

02:55a solid metal ball, hotter than the surface of the Sun,

02:58but still solid because the pressure down there is extremely high.

03:04When Earth was first forming, it was super high.

03:07So high that the entire planet was like a giant cosmic lava lamp,

03:11bubbling with molten metal and rock.

03:14In that state, every element could move freely,

03:17and the heaviest one sank toward the center.

03:19Gold, along with other dense metals like platinum and ruthenium,

03:23is really heavy.

03:25So those metals naturally sank to the core

03:27in a process called planetary differentiation.

03:31Think of it like oil and water in a bottle.

03:34If you shake it and then let it settle,

03:36the heavier substance sinks to the bottom,

03:38and the lighter one rises to the top.

03:41In Earth's case, lighter materials floated upward

03:43and eventually formed the crust.

03:46Now, gold has a really cool characteristic.

03:49It really likes to stick to iron.

03:52That's why scientists call gold a sidrophile,

03:55which literally means gold-loving.

03:57Ooh.

03:58So when iron started sinking,

04:00gold followed it down,

04:02straight to the center of the planet.

04:04On top of that, gold is super heavy,

04:07nearly 20 times heavier than water.

04:09So gravity helped pull it even deeper.

04:12That's why today,

04:13the Earth's crust only has tiny traces of gold,

04:17while the other 99% remains unreachable in the core,

04:211,800 miles below our feet.

04:24But that's not all.

04:26Some theories suggest that maybe 200 million years,

04:30after Earth was formed,

04:31the planet got hit by a bunch of metal-rich meteorites.

04:34Those space rocks were loaded with gold.

04:37And since Earth's crust had already cooled by then,

04:41that gold stayed near the surface,

04:43and we've been using it ever since.

04:45So if most of Earth's gold is trapped below,

04:49what exactly was discovered oozing out?

04:51Well, scientists recently studied volcanic rocks in Hawaii.

04:57And they found out that these rocks

04:58contained a rare version of the element ruthenium,

05:01which is called ruthenium-100.

05:04Now, this little isotope isn't something

05:06you usually find hanging out near the surface.

05:09It has a kind of chemical footprint that says,

05:12hey, I came from way down deeper.

05:15And when we say deep,

05:16we mean core-mantle boundary deep,

05:18the layer where Earth's molten metal core,

05:21meets the rock above it.

05:23Basically, it's the basement

05:25no one thought you could access.

05:27The basement where we assume that gold is hiding.

05:31So how do these rocks get from the core

05:33all the way up to Hawaii?

05:35Vacation!

05:36Well, no.

05:37Actually, it all comes down

05:38to something called a mantle plume.

05:41We know that the lower part of Earth,

05:43near the core, is insanely hot.

05:46Every now and then,

05:46a big, superheated blob of rock

05:49starts rising through the mantle,

05:50slowly, like really slowly.

05:54We're talking a few inches per year,

05:56but over millions of years,

05:58that adds up.

06:00This rising column of hot rock

06:02is the mantle plume.

06:04It doesn't blast upward like a volcano.

06:07It slowly rises and carries material

06:09from deep, deep inside the Earth.

06:11That includes elements and chemical fingerprints

06:14from the core mantle boundary.

06:16However, here's the cool part.

06:18When that plume finally reaches the surface,

06:21it punches through the crust

06:22and creates a volcanic hotspot.

06:25That's what happened in Hawaii.

06:28The islands were literally built

06:29by this deep Earth plumbing system.

06:32The lava that erupts there

06:34isn't just melted surface rock.

06:36It's a blend of material

06:37that's been on a journey

06:38from thousands of miles below.

06:40But I can hear your thoughts now.

06:43Wait, what about gold?

06:45Well, sadly,

06:46we're not talking about gold bars

06:48coming from a volcano.

06:50What's actually leaking

06:51is tiny atomic-level traces

06:53of metals like ruthenium.

06:56However, where there's ruthenium,

06:58there's a good chance

06:59gold is tagging along.

07:01Remember when we said

07:02that gold is a siderophile,

07:04meaning that it really likes iron?

07:07Well, the ruthenium has the same property.

07:10It's an iron-loving element,

07:12which means it tends to bond with iron

07:13and sink to the core

07:15during planet formation.

07:17So if ruthenium from the core

07:19is managing to ride up to the surface

07:21through mantle plumes,

07:23it strongly suggests that gold

07:25and other similar heavy metals

07:26could be doing the same.

07:29In other words,

07:30scientists are using ruthenium

07:31as a chemical trail marker

07:33because it's easier to detect

07:35and analyze.

07:36Meaning that gold

07:37might be there too,

07:39just in amounts too small

07:40to measure with current instruments.

07:43This discovery suggests

07:44that all the siderophile elements

07:46are leaking out of the core.

07:49But this opens an opportunity to ask,

07:52has this happened before?

07:54And if so,

07:55what could it mean?

07:56Well, maybe Earth's core

07:58has been leaking metals all along

08:00and we just never noticed.

08:02The truth is,

08:03we're still just scratching the surface,

08:05or in this case,

08:07the core.

08:08For all we know,

08:09this kind of deep Earth leak

08:11has been going on for millions,

08:13maybe even billions of years.

08:15But until now,

08:16we haven't had the tools to notice.

08:19The technology that scientists use

08:21to spot ruthenium 100

08:22is brand new.

08:24It has only recently become precise enough

08:26to pick up these tiny chemical hints.

08:29So this might be the very first time

08:31we've caught Earth's core doing this.

08:34And if that's true,

08:36it's kind of a big deal.

08:38Because it means

08:39the inside of our planet

08:40isn't sealed off in silent.

08:42And it might still be shaping

08:44the surface in ways

08:45we never imagined.

08:47Not with explosions and earthquakes,

08:50but with slow, steady,

08:52atomic-scale signals

08:53rising through the rock.

08:55We're only just beginning

08:56to detect these signals.

08:59And if rare metals

09:00are making that journey upward,

09:02there's a lot more happening

09:03deep inside Earth

09:04than we thought.

09:06This isn't just

09:07a one-time discovery.

09:08It could be the start

09:10of a whole new way

09:11of understanding our planet.

09:13Cool, huh?

09:16That's it for today.

09:17So hey,

09:17if you pacified your curiosity,

09:19then give the video a like

09:21and share it with your friends.

09:22Or if you want more,

09:23just click on these videos

09:24and stay on the bright side!

Earth’s Core Is Leaking Gold - And It’s Rising Up!

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