Gold Erupts From Hawaiian Volcanoes, Scientists Discover
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
There's gold in them thar hills—or, at least, in the volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands—along with other precious metals.
This is the conclusion of an international team of researchers who found evidence that metals are leaking from Earth's core into the mantle, before being erupted at the surface.
"When the results first came in, we realized that we had literally struck gold," said paper author and geochemist Nils Messling of Göttingen University, Germany, in a statement.
"Our data confirmed that material from the core—including gold and other precious metals—is leaking into Earth's mantle above."
According to the researchers, more than 99.999 percent of Earth's total reserves of gold and other precious metals lie within our planet's metallic core—buried beneath some 1,864 miles of rock.
A volcanic eruption at Kilauea, Hawaii.
A volcanic eruption at Kilauea, Hawaii.
wellesenterprises/Stock / Getty Images Plus
In their study, Messling and colleagues found traces of one particular precious metal—ruthenium (Ru)—that their analysis indicates must have come from Earth's core.
Compared with the mantle, the team explains, Earth's core has a greater abundance of one particular ruthenium isotope: 100Ru.
The reason for this is that the ruthenium that ended up locked up in the core when it formed some 4.5 billion years ago (along with gold and other precious metals) came from a different source than the tiny amount of the element that can be found in the mantle today.
It had long been impossible to distinguish these differences in ruthenium isotope concentrations—until the advent of new methods, developed at Göttingen, which revealed unusually high 100Ru signals in the Hawaiian lavas.
Paper co-author and Göttingen geochemist professor Matthias Willbold said in a statement: "Our findings not only show that Earth's core is not as isolated as previously assumed.
"We can now also prove that huge volumes of superheated mantle material—several hundreds of quadrillion metric tons of rock—originate at the core–mantle boundary and rise to Earth's surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii."
The findings, the researchers explain, mean that at least some of our valued but limited supplies of gold and other precious metals may have come from the Earth's core.
"Whether these processes that we observe today have also been operating in the past remains to be proven," Messling said.
He concluded: "Our findings open up an entirely new perspective on the evolution of the inner dynamics of our home planet."
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about geology? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Reference
Messling, N., Willbold, M., Kallas, L., Elliott, T., Fitton, J. G., Müller, T., & Geist, D. (2025). Ru and W isotope systematics in ocean island basalts reveals core leakage. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09003-0
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Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Gold and other precious metals are leaking from Earth's core into the layers above, eventually making their way up to the surface during the formation of volcanic islands like Hawaii, a new study suggests. The theory results from a three-year analysis of Hawaii's basaltic rocks, which originally formed from plumes of magma, or molten rock, rising from the ocean floor. Clues in the form of heavy metals found in the volcanic rocks could confirm a suspicion long held by geologists — that Earth's molten core is not isolated but likely bleeds into the rocky mantle, the layer between the planet's thin crust and the core. 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But this study suggests that at least a tiny amount of that gold has escaped to the surface, raising the fascinating prospect that, if the leaking continues, more and more of this precious metal could travel from the center of Earth to the crust in the future. 'Our findings not only show that the Earth's core is not as isolated as previously assumed. We can now also prove that huge volumes of super-heated mantle material — several hundreds of quadrillion metric tonnes of rock — originate at the core-mantle boundary and rise to the Earth's surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii,' said study coauthor Matthias Willbold, a professor at the University of Göttingen, in a statement. To find evidence of this core-mantle interaction, Messling and his coauthors obtained some samples of Hawaiian volcanic rocks form the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. 'Some were taken by a submarine, from a deep sea volcano, but (otherwise) it's basically just very ordinary-looking basaltic rock, very unassuming, that you would find anywhere on Hawaii,' he said. 'We started with half a kilogram (1.1 pounds) of rock, we crushed it into a powder, and then we melted it in the oven with some different chemicals, to end up with a sample in liquid form.' From that sample, the team extracted all the elements in the platinum group, which includes platinum itself as well as the lesser-known rhodium, palladium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium. The scientists then focused on ruthenium, a silver-gray metal about as rare in Earth's crust as gold. 'The mantle has almost no ruthenium in it,' Messling said. 'It's one of the rarest elements on Earth. But Earth is basically made of meteorites that crashed together, and meteorites (contain) ruthenium, which went into the core when the core formed. So the mantle has next to no ruthenium, and the core has all of the ruthenium. The same with gold and platinum.' Earth's core has two layers. A hot, solid metal sphere of iron and nickel is roughly 70% the size of the moon, with a radius of about 759 miles (1,221 kilometers). A liquid metal outer core is about 1,400 miles (2,253 kilometers) thick and extends to about 1,800 miles (2,897 kilometers) below the surface, or right up to the mantle. In contrast, the mantle, which lies between the planet's outer crust and the molten core, is 1,800 miles (2,897 kilometers) of mostly solid rock. To determine whether the extracted ruthenium was originally from the core and not the mantle, the team looked at a specific isotope, or type, of ruthenium that was likely more abundant in Earth's early building materials during the time the core formed billions of years ago. 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In other words, the ruthenium isotope Messling found was locked away in the core billions of years ago, so detecting the isotope in volcanic rocks today suggests it comes from the core. 'It's quite a novel and difficult method,' Messling said. 'We managed to measure ruthenium in rocks that have next to no ruthenium in them. In half a kilo (1.1 pounds) of rock, it was less than milligrams — a needle in a planet-sized haystack! That's quite exciting — for a geochemist, at least. It was a long but very exciting process.' So what's the connection with gold? It's chemically similar to ruthenium, Messling said, so if the core is leaking ruthenium, it is also leaking gold in similar quantities. This would be a 'minuscule' amount, however. And even if scientists wanted to extract gold directly from the source, the core-mantle boundary, that's much farther down than current technology could drill. 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According to Messling, if the leaking of precious metals is an ongoing process, it could be that at least some of the gold humans have mined may have come from the core even if the quantity of core material in a single rock is negligible, and that the world's supply of gold seems to be replenishing. 'It's a very interesting idea that, although this process is tiny and has zero effect if you look at just one island, if you scale it up to 4.5 billion years it could be that it changes the composition of the Earth,' he said. Researchers who were not involved in the study expressed positive views on the findings. 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From that sample, the team extracted all the elements in the platinum group, which includes platinum itself as well as the lesser-known rhodium, palladium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium. The scientists then focused on ruthenium, a silver-gray metal about as rare in Earth's crust as gold. 'The mantle has almost no ruthenium in it,' Messling said. 'It's one of the rarest elements on Earth. But Earth is basically made of meteorites that crashed together, and meteorites (contain) ruthenium, which went into the core when the core formed. So the mantle has next to no ruthenium, and the core has all of the ruthenium. The same with gold and platinum.' Earth's core has two layers. A hot, solid metal sphere of iron and nickel is roughly 70% the size of the moon, with a radius of about 759 miles (1,221 kilometers). A liquid metal outer core is about 1,400 miles (2,253 kilometers) thick and extends to about 1,800 miles (2,897 kilometers) below the surface, or right up to the mantle. 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'This is a very old debate, and new data over the past 10 or so years has reinvigorated the possibility that the core was chemically 'leaking' into the mantle over time,' he said. 'This study really does seem to nail the conclusion — the core does contribute some material to the mantle.' The latest research also strengthens the case made in previous work that some mantle plumes incorporate material from Earth's core, said the University of Copenhagen's Waterton. Does that also mean some of the gold in Earth's crust is originally from the core? 'Yes, but probably only a very small amount,' he said.
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