Mount Erebus: Antarctica’s tallest active volcano spews gold dust worth $6,000 every day

In the snow-covered continent of the Antarctic, which is also home to hundreds of active volcanoes, there is one volcano which is spewing gold dust worth a small fortune every day.

A report by IFL Science citing a study said that one of the most ferocious and tallest active volcanoes on the continent, Mount Erebus, is expelling more than just smoke.

It was reportedly found that the volcano is spewing out pockets of gas containing crystallised gold every day, which is worth around $6,000.

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The so-called gold dust is no larger than 20 micrometres but over the course of the day, you can get gold which weighs roughly 80 grammes.

The scientists also said that the gold dust travels far and wide after researchers found traces of the gold in ambient air up to 1,000 kilometres away from Mount Erebus.

However, the gold from the volcano may not make you rich as its geographic isolation poses a challenge.

Why does Mount Erebus spew gold?

The discovery that the world’s southernmost active volcano on Ross Island near the McMurdo Station is spewing out gold dust was made back in the 1990s.

At the time, scientists noted that while other volcanoes are known to emit gold, Mount Erebus is the only one to emit it in metallic form, which left scientists baffled.

However, in a recent interview, British volcanologist and professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford, Tamsin Mather told Metro UK that gold is not the only valuable thing that comes out of the volcano.

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She noted that the volcano has an “unusual chemistry to its magma” and is one of the “few that has persistent active lava lakes in its crater”.

However, despite the unusual magma Mount Erebus is just one of many volcanoes which is spewing gold, according to Mather, as there are others which also emit metals like copper.

Mather also told the Metro UK you cannot harness the “metallic bounty” as “you can not put an umbrella over a large volcano, trust me.”

(With inputs from agencies)