A new study from Canada has helped give more evidence to the theory that a lot of earths precious metals have come from outer space from mineral rich meteorites. Some of the minerals that are thought to have arrived from meteorite strikes are platinum and palladium. The author of the study geologist James Brennan said “The notion of extraterrestrial rain may also explain another mystery, which is how the rock portion of the Earth came to have hydrogen, carbon and phosphorous — the essential components for life, which were likely lost during Earth's violent beginning. Also the extreme temperature at which the Earth's core formed more than four billion years ago would have completely stripped any precious metals from the rocky crust and deposited them in the core.” He then goes on to talk about how he wondered how it was possible that minerals like platinum and palladium were mineable. He also talks about how there is a bit more mineable gold then can be accounted for without the theory of an extraterrestrial source delivering it.
I found this very interesting because it tied to multiple things that we have learned this year in geoscience. It didn’t occur to me while we were learning about the creation of earth how all of those minerals are still around even though they went through such extreme heat and pressure. But then when I stumbled upon this article it made sense that a lot of these minerals had to come from a meteorite. I also thought that this article related to the rock cycle because of how within the rock cycle things are constantly changing so it would be hard to stay in its original state just like these minerals did.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Earth+precious+metals+likely+from+outer+space+Study/2124570/story.html
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