Earthquakes Form Gold Deposits: Flash Vaporization Leaves Behind Gold Veins

A new study found that earthquakes are faster than known in forming concentrated mineral deposits by causing flash vaporization of underground water that always contains traces of solved minerals and thus leaves behind gold veins, among other metals.

Just as the ground shakes, water vaporizes, and in a flash a new mineral vein rich with gold appears.

Scientists have noted, according to MSN News, that through simple experiments in a new study that earthquakes deep below the ground snatch rocks apart, causing water and fluids to vaporize and leaving behind gold and other minerals.

"Flash vaporization continues as more fluid flows towards the newly expanded cavity, until the pressure in the cavity eventually recovers," the study states. "Multiple earthquakes progressively build economic-grade gold deposits."

According to New Scientist, geologists have long understood that gold comes from mineral-rich, underground water networks. However, it said, this new study shows just how pressure changes initiated by earthquakes help facilitate these mineral-rich streams.

The geologists responsible for the new study discovered that not only do earthquake-related pressure changes help create gold deposits, but they do so much more quickly than previously thought. According to New Scientist, an earthquake can rip rocks apart at the speed of sound.

The fluid in the rocks can't fill gaps created so quickly, leading to dramatic, instant pressure drops, New Scientist said.

The fluid therefore evaporates, leaving behind gold.

The study appears in the journal Nature Geoscience.