How Did Gold Get To Earth? | Colour: The Spectrum of Science | BBC Earth Science

Gold is certainly one of the most alluring natural resources, but just how did we come to find it? Come with us on a journey through space and time, from meteors to prospectors from the Wild West, to find out more about this mesmerising metal.

#Gold #Science #Metal

Taken from 'Colour: The Spectrum of Science' (2015).

Just 15 colours tell the entire story of Earth, life and scientific discovery. This series explains how each of these colours occurs, unlocking the mysteries of nature and the forces that underpin the Universe itself. More than any other planet, the Earth is awash with colour. With its flowers, oceans, rainbows and vast array of animal life, our planet stands out from the blackness of space as a multi-coloured jewel. Our eyes allow us to experience colour as an explosion of vibrant wonder. Colour: The Spectrum of Science examines this miracle of nature, and travels across the world to discover what makes our planet's palette unique.

[simonnoble]

Alluvial gold in rivers comes from decayed mountainous hard rock veins, where the gold was deposited from the earths metallic core by volcanic activity early in the geological timeline

[Phosphoenol_pyruvate_CK]

We just look, we don't touch with our fingers! 😂

[johnnydoe]

You forgot to tell that Multiple Generations of Stars Existed before Sun & their End led to the Creation of Heavier & Heavier Elements. 😊

[NSNorfolk]

Gold, as an element is only formed in a supernova.

[oortcloud]

What makes gold even more remarkable, is that very fine traces have been found on the lead casings of dismantled fission reactors.

Everything is about Energy into Matter, but I haven't quite worked out the equations yet?

[thompjackson]

Oh there's some pure gold here. Thank you.

[MinaMina-jcdw]

“The smoother it is, the further it’s travelled.”

[Sjalabais]

So ELI5 is that gold comes from space, gets concentrated through "geological processes", then washed out by water? That's the most *unspecific* "explanation" you guys could give.

[jedionboard]

Good to see Dr Helen Czerski, love her programmes, but this is from 2015 !!!!.

[esselsid]

0:59 That's still approx 27, 900 BILLION tonnes of gold!

[dloui]

oh, that was saint peter doing the heaven's road maintenance .
Boss wanted to replace the old road bricks with the new ones .

[jamesdooling]

One thing that should interest a lot of people is that during the formation of our solar system, heavier elements were attracted to gravitational forces as soon as they could... Don't be surprised if one day we find Mercury and Venus to be far wealthier than Earth in their gold possessions. ✨️

[seauryakumar]

Gold and its importance is always a good topic to talk about. The human fascination with Gold is very interesting.

[eckosters]

Not great wording. Nowhere is it stated that gold is inert, you can repurpose it at infintum, hence gold is not a critical mineral.
I also object to “geology and water processes”.

[paul]

Another one of the thousands upon thousands of examples where ideas and theories are presented as fact. This is what modern day science has become rather than seeking for the truth about things by always asking questions and always being open to new input they present their so-called knowledge as fact, and don’t you dare argue against it.

[sbrunner]

I’ve never thought about the history of a particular piece of gold. Interesting to consider some gold we now own in our current lives may have been in many other forms in prior generations.

[AshleyRajam]

We are obsessed with its properties not just the colour. Gold and human civilization have always had a history.

[rajmathew]

I find it fascinating that the woman is suggesting how precious gold is, yet she is objectively much more precious than it considering gold is sprinkled across the universe, yet we still haven't found life, let alone intelligent life. And yes, I think she's beautiful lol

[Kent]

I imagine gold got here the same way everything else got here.

[t.robinson]

Stars.

Okay, now that’s settled we can save ourselves four and a half minutes.