There’s a volcano in Antarctica that spews out literal bits of gold.
If only money grew on trees or fell from the sky eh? Well, if you fancy a trip to the cold depths of Antarctica and fancy your chances getting fairly up close and personal with the highest active volcano in the continent, the latter of these scenarios almost comes true.
The mountain is the tallest active volcano in Antarctica. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
American geologists made the discovery back in 1991, New Scientist reports.
At the time, geologists found gold particles in the volcanic gases and in snow near to the volcano, with IFL Science stating particles of the precious metal were even detected 1,000km (621 miles) away.
And the volcano remains active to this day.
Philip Kyle, from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, explained gold deposits can originate in volcanic rock and so when lava from the mountain – which has a summit elevation of 3,794 meters (12,448 feet) – emits hot gas, this carries some of the gold particles into the air.
But how much gold is spewed out and what is this gold-spewing mountain called? I hear you cry.
Well, it’s called Mount Erebus and the gold flecks which American geologists found spewing out of it measured between ‘0.1 and 20 micrometers’ in the volcanic gases and ’60 micrometers’ in nearby snow.
Still, while this amount may seem minuscule, over the course of a single day, scientists estimate that the volcano churns out around 80g (2.8 ounces) of gold.
According to Gold.co.uk, at the time of writing, the current price of a gram of gold is $75.76.
This means the volcano spews out around $6,000 worth of gold every day – although, this probably depends on the quality and certain other factors, I’m no expert in gold – unfortunately.
However, there’s a much more grave and important reason as to why people travel down to visit the mountain.
Gold specks were found spewed out the mountain during an expedition in the early 90s. (Pexels/ cottonbro studio)
Mount Erebus is also known for being the scene of tragedy.
On November 28, 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed into the side of the mountain.
It had been flying over Ross Island where Mount Erebus is located as part of its scheduled antarctic sightseeing flights which had been operating since 1977.
All 237 passengers and 20 members of crew on board were killed in the crash and from that day forward Air New Zealand stopped all of its flyovers across Antarctica.
The disaster became known as the Erebus disaster.
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