The University of Queensland (UQ) and the Australian National University haveofficially confirmed what gold prospectors have long suspected; there is a connection between seismic activity and the presence of gold and other trace elements.

In a paper published in the prestigious Nature Geoscience journal, co-authors Dion Weatherley, from UQ, and Richard Henley from the Australian National University, confirmed the link following an 18 month long collaborative research.

“While geochemical and geological evidence has long alluded to a connection between earthquakes and the deposition of gold, there has been much debate through the decades as to whether the precipitation of gold was a slow, equilibrium process or whether, as Professor Henley was proposing, it was a rapid and far from equilibrium process,” Dr Weatherley said.

The mathematical model developed through the research process suggests that seismic activity could be one of the primary mechanisms for the formation of economical and mineable ore deposits, according to Dr Weatherley. 

“The most surprising finding we made was that even very small magnitude earthquakes of four and smaller can generate sufficient pressure reduction within fault jogs to initiate flash precipitation of gold and quartz during the earthquake itself,” Dr Weatherley said. 

“While the amount of gold that would be deposited in any one earthquake is quite small, when you consider that tens or hundreds of magnitude four quakes and thousands of smaller magnitude quakes may occur each year within an earthquake fault system, the possibility exists that over time, large gold deposits may result.”