Volcano Ejects Gold Worth IDR 97 Million Every Day

JAKARTA – Active volcanoes in Antarctica send gold dust worth USD 6,000 or approximately IDR 97,000,000 into the air every day. According to NASA’s Earth Observatory report, Mount Erebus emits gas bubbles containing 80 grams of crystallized gold every day.

Mount Erebus is the most famous volcano in Antarctica. With a peak height of 12,448 feet (3,794 meters), it is the highest active volcano on the continent and holds the title of the southernmost active volcano on earth.

Greek Reporter, Thursday (25/4/2024) reported that Mount Erebus, which was named after the personification of darkness in Greek mythology, was first discovered by British explorer Captain James Clark Ross in 1841.

This volcano is one of 138 active volcanoes in Antarctica. This volcano on Antarctica’s Ross Island became famous in 1979 after Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed there.

This new discovery from NASA is consistent with observations gold release from the volcano in 1991. Then, as now, researchers found gold particles in the volcano’s volcanic gases and surrounding snow.

Philip Kyle of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro said the gold deposit likely came from volcanic rock. The release of hot gas from the mountain by the lava carries a number of gold particles into the air.

Mount Erebus is estimated to emit gold grains of 0.1 to 20 micrometers into the volcanic gas and 60 micrometers into the surrounding snow.

According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, they found precious metal dust up to 621 miles away from the southernmost Erebus lava pit. It is 12,448 feet (3,794.02 meters) high. According to Connor Bacon of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York, since 1972 Mount Erebus has also had a lava lake, in one of its summit craters.