Karmactive Staff
Scientists have made an amazing discovery deep beneath our feet. Earth’s core is slowly leaking gold and other precious metals toward the surface. This finding, published in the journal Nature, changes what we thought we knew about our planet.
For years, scientists believed Earth’s core was completely sealed off from the rest of the planet. Now, researchers from the University of Göttingen in Germany have found evidence that materials from the core are slowly moving upward.
“When the first results came in, we realized that we had literally struck gold!” said lead researcher Nils Messling, a geochemist at the University of Göttingen. “Our data confirmed that material from the core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into the Earth’s mantle above.”
The team studied volcanic rocks from Hawaii that formed from magma rising from deep inside Earth. They looked specifically for ruthenium, a rare silver-grey metal similar to platinum that’s used in electronics and jewelry. Using new testing methods, they found unusual amounts of a specific type of ruthenium (ruthenium-100) that normally exists only in the Earth’s core.
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Why does Earth’s core contain so much gold in the first place? About 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth was still forming, heavier elements like gold and platinum sank toward the center during what scientists call the “iron catastrophe.” This process left more than 99.9% of Earth’s gold and other heavy metals locked away in the core, thousands of miles below the surface.
If you gathered all this hidden gold, it would cover Earth’s entire land surface in a layer 20 inches thick. That’s an incredible amount compared to the tiny fraction that humans have ever mined.
“Our findings not only show that Earth’s core is not as isolated as previously assumed,” explained study co-author Professor Matthias Willbold. “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 the Earth’s surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii.”
This leaking process happens extremely slowly. Scientists estimate it takes between 500 million and 1 billion years to complete. It has likely been occurring throughout Earth’s history and continues today.
The discovery suggests that some of the gold in your wedding ring or smartphone might have originally come from Earth’s core. Precious metals like gold and platinum aren’t just valuable for jewelry – they’re essential components in everyday devices like cell phones, computers, medical equipment, and catalytic converters in cars.
The study, published on May 21, 2025, helps us better understand the hidden processes happening deep inside our planet. While humans will never mine gold directly from Earth’s core, this research reveals how our planet continues to surprise us with its dynamic inner workings.
