Bigger Gold

[Twapster]

Hey Loamer, I cant help question whether gold does travel far from the source. Has anyone ever done any studies on this? In principle I can understand a pebble rolling, and each year it gets pushed by flood etc, however im still not convinced. A good example would be gem fields, I dont think the gems are travelling all that far and they are a lot lighter. Gems seem to be in specific areas......if they were alluvial they would in theory travel many miles yet that doesn't seem to be the case. One might argue the gems shatter and become like sand, whereas gold is malleable and stays in one piece better.

Im not trying to get shot down here but I wonder if gold is really travelling that far. Ive seen river holes in rocks where it appears a pebble has moved round and round and eventually created a perfect circle in the rock so nature does do some weird stuff. Id love to know if alluvial gold travel is a fact, or just an accepted theory.

 

[Goldtarget]

Dig around deep enough and you'll find all sorts of theories. I'd say keep an open mind, it's funny how every one ina while something flies in the face of some theory I've read heard or imparted. I say whatever finds you good gold is good theory.

 

[outboard]

Hey Loamer, I cant help question whether gold does travel far from the source. Has anyone ever done any studies on this? In principle I can understand a pebble rolling, and each year it gets pushed by flood etc, however im still not convinced. A good example would be gem fields, I dont think the gems are travelling all that far and they are a lot lighter. Gems seem to be in specific areas......if they were alluvial they would in theory travel many miles yet that doesn't seem to be the case. One might argue the gems shatter and become like sand, whereas gold is malleable and stays in one piece better.

Im not trying to get shot down here but I wonder if gold is really travelling that far. Ive seen river holes in rocks where it appears a pebble has moved round and round and eventually created a perfect circle in the rock so nature does do some weird stuff. Id love to know if alluvial gold travel is a fact, or just an accepted theory.

It is a scientifically proved fact ... or in other works a theory that looks good, explains what is empirical, repeated and not able to be disproved

for instance ,if working a hill below a known source reef , down hill from the source gold will be found in a triangular pattern with the point of the triangle at the source , up hill of the the source very little if any gold will be found, the concentration of gold will be heavier toward the central line of the triangle , and the nuggets will be smoother and rounded further away from the source, conversely the closer to the source the rougher the nuggets will be.

having found this to be true when the source is known then new sources of gold can be found, this is what loaming is based on , more or less

and now there is a technical diagram to go with the theory so it must be right

 

[gcause]

Hey Loamer, I cant help question whether gold does travel far from the source. Has anyone ever done any studies on this? In principle I can understand a pebble rolling, and each year it gets pushed by flood etc, however im still not convinced. A good example would be gem fields, I dont think the gems are travelling all that far and they are a lot lighter. Gems seem to be in specific areas......if they were alluvial they would in theory travel many miles yet that doesn't seem to be the case. One might argue the gems shatter and become like sand, whereas gold is malleable and stays in one piece better.

Im not trying to get shot down here but I wonder if gold is really travelling that far. Ive seen river holes in rocks where it appears a pebble has moved round and round and eventually created a perfect circle in the rock so nature does do some weird stuff. Id love to know if alluvial gold travel is a fact, or just an accepted theory.

Don't ever underestimate the power of water to move gold. Thats a really large boulder wedged up in that tree from a flood.

 

[Twapster]

Ok I guess asked and answered, however one could argue that the really large boulder is 5 times lighter than gold. Using that travel theory, gold should always be found in more abundance down stream. Over 1000's of years one would expect given the theory that the gold can travel many km. So why is it that gold appears in patches that are well up stream and there are no mother loads downstream where all this gold has been apparently travelling?

I do believe Outboards diagram is correct in that its going to roll down the hill and , i'm still not convinced it moves that much downstream. Anyway, it doesn't hurt to question a gold theory lol. :lol:

 

[gcause]

Eddy currents and vortexes are what cause gold to drop out of the stream onto the inner bends of creeks and rivers. However flood events are a different kettle of fish due to the power they generate. Those inner bends can be completely ripped away and the gold with them unless it gets stuck in the crevices of bedrock. That's why rivers change their coarse over time the floods change the landscape. My brother lives near a river that has changed its course from the last two flood events 2011 and 2013. After the floods the banks were completely barren ripped right down to the bedrock. The banks had a thirty metre drop from the main road down to the river and the road was about 100 metres away from the river. The road was undercut by the river and the bank of the river is less than a metre away. Hugh amounts of soil and rock were swept away up stream.

Also don't think about recent history think about millennia and glaciers. Glaciers will crush and move gold miles. Look at nome Alaska for a good example of that.

 

[TimAu]

How far does a smooth nugget have to travel before it becomes smooth?
Is it more likely to have been placed there by water? What I'm trying to understand is that if for example you found a smooth nugget 50m from the top of the slope could it have come from a reef or is it more likely to have been deposited by water?
Is it worth detecting slopes or gullies that show no signs of any reef?

 

[Guest]

Some reading:
http://www.gold-prospecting-wa.com/alluvial-gold.html

www.janetsgoldnuggets.com/Gold%20deposits.doc

 

[Twapster]

Mbasko, way to go. You just turned my night from "coming to bed soon" to "what shit are you reading on the internet again about gold"

Thanks for that!

 

[outboard]

How far does a smooth nugget have to travel before it becomes smooth?
Is it more likely to have been placed there by water? What I'm trying to understand is that if for example you found a smooth nugget 50m from the top of the slope could it have come from a reef or is it more likely to have been deposited by water?
Is it worth detecting slopes or gullies that show no signs of any reef?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBHfgB5ta9U

this guy is a geologist and has found several reefs that were developed into mines and is very edumactionanal 8)

 

[TimAu]

Some reading:
http://www.gold-prospecting-wa.com/alluvial-gold.html

www.janetsgoldnuggets.com/Gold%20deposits.doc

Some good reading there mbasko, may need to read it a few times.

Outboard I like the sketch you made in an earlier post. On a patch I found running down a slope I marked every find I made with a GPS and it looks just like your sketch. Very interesting to see a pattern emerge like this and helps show you where to concentrate your search.