{"id":2043853,"date":"2026-07-14T18:10:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2043853"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:10:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:10:29","slug":"scientists-found-gold-in-the-most-ironic-place-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2043853","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Found Gold in the Most Ironic Place Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fools-gold-japan-hydrothermal-vents-1200×675.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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Japanese scientists discovered the undersea fields of Higashi-Aogashima Knoll Caldera\u2019s hydrothermal vents over a decade ago, but the mineral-rich deposits from these fissures continue to reveal bizarre surprises. In the years since, Japan has devoted both private and government resources toward recovering the many millions of tons of metallic ore once hidden within this seafloor\u2014but I don\u2019t think any of those expeditions ever expected to find this.<\/p>\n

Geologists working with the crew of the Research Vessel (R\/V) Shinsei Maru<\/em> have uncovered an unusually potent deposit of actual elemental gold deeply interlaced within pyrite, commonly known as \u201cfool\u2019s gold,\u201d in record-breaking concentrations as high as 1.9% by weight. Yes, that\u2019s right\u2014they found actual gold within fool\u2019s gold, the latter of which is famous for resembling the precious metal despite having little intrinsic value.\u00a0The bona fide gold was found locked within the crystalline structure of these pyrite deposits along the volcanic caldera roughly 2,300 feet (700 meters) below sea level.<\/p>\n

Sulfur is a geologically common nonmetallic element leaked from hydrothermal vents, one that is\u00a0 integral to their alien ecosystems, and an essential component in fool\u2019s gold, iron sulfide. The study\u2019s first author, geologist Yuichi Morishita, and his colleagues theorize that the formation of this pyrite alongside arsenic contaminants is what facilitated the entry of this hidden gold into this crystalline mineral.<\/p>\n

\u201cPyrite is a ubiquitous sulfide mineral in the most hydrothermal systems, and arsenian pyrite is a common host for \u2018invisible gold,\u2019\u201d the researchers explained in their new study, currently undergoing editorial review for the Nature journal Scientific Reports.<\/p>\n

Gold bonds<\/h2>\n

For context, this 19,231 parts-per-million (ppm) concentration of reverse-double fool\u2019s gold (i.e., real gold) is more than 440 times the concentrations currently found in other known deep-sea gold deposits globally, which tend to contain concentrations somewhere between 0.01 and 43 ppm. But not all of the Higashi-Aogashima Knoll\u2019s hydrothermal pyrite contained gold in these rich amounts.<\/p>\n

The so-called Central Cone Site contained pyrite with the highest concentrations, with a special formation of the crystalline mineral, known as colloform pyrite, containing the most gold. This colloform pyrite formed when superheated sulfurous emissions from the hydrothermal vents rapidly cooled as they mixed with cold seawater\u2014leading to chemical additions that may have facilitated the pyrite\u2019s gold-trapping internal structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cColloform pyrites with high lead and\/or copper concentrations in addition to arsenic concentration [\u2026] might have induced the high gold concentration in pyrite,\u201d the researchers wrote. \u201c[But] elucidating the mechanism remains a topic for future study.\u201d<\/p>\n

Very fine gold<\/h2>\n

One aspect of these gold deposits that surprised Morishita and his coauthors was how thinly interlaced they were within the pyrite, not in gold nuggets so much as woven in at an atomic level (more like \u201cgold capillaries\u201d than \u201cgold veins,\u201d I guess you could say). The discovery, in fact, was only possible through a highly detailed analysis of the pyrite\u2019s chemical makeup using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe first found \u2018invisible gold\u2019 in pyrite from the sulfide mound and active chimney of the deposits through the SIMS analysis,\u201d Morishita and his colleagues wrote.<\/p>\n

The unique chemistry of the Higashi-Aogashima Knoll Caldera\u2019s hydrothermal vents, with its imposing black smoker chimneys pumping out sulfide, might prove to be a model that helps researchers find other gold deposits just like it elsewhere in Earth\u2019s oceans. But, at roughly 2,690 feet (820 meters) below sea level, the caldera\u2019s \u201cinvisible gold\u201d may nevertheless prove to be uniquely close to the surface compared to other truly deep-sea hydrothermal vents.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture commercial development challenges are expected to be less difficult than other deeper deposits,\u201d the researchers noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Japanese scientists discovered the undersea fields of Higashi-Aogashima Knoll Caldera\u2019s hydrothermal vents over a decade ago, but the mineral-rich deposits from these fissures continue to reveal bizarre surprises. In the years since, Japan has devoted both private and government resources toward recovering the many millions of tons of metallic ore once hidden within this seafloor\u2014but I don\u2019t think any of those expeditions ever expected to find this.<\/p>\n

Geologists working with the crew of the Research Vessel (R\/V) Shinsei Maru<\/em> have uncovered an unusually potent deposit of actual elemental gold deeply interlaced within pyrite, commonly known as \u201cfool\u2019s gold,\u201d in record-breaking concentrations as high as 1.9% by weight. Yes, that\u2019s right\u2014they found actual gold within fool\u2019s gold, the latter of which is famous for resembling the precious metal despite having little intrinsic value.\u00a0The bona fide gold was found locked within the crystalline structure of these pyrite deposits along the volcanic caldera roughly 2,300 feet (700 meters) below sea level.<\/p>\n

Sulfur is a geologically common nonmetallic element leaked from hydrothermal vents, one that is\u00a0 integral to their alien ecosystems, and an essential component in fool\u2019s gold, iron sulfide. The study\u2019s first author, geologist Yuichi Morishita, and his colleagues theorize that the formation of this pyrite alongside arsenic contaminants is what facilitated the entry of this hidden gold into this crystalline mineral.<\/p>\n

\u201cPyrite is a ubiquitous sulfide mineral in the most hydrothermal systems, and arsenian pyrite is a common host for \u2018invisible gold,\u2019\u201d the researchers explained in their new study, currently undergoing editorial review for the Nature journal Scientific Reports.<\/p>\n

Gold bonds<\/h2>\n

For context, this 19,231 parts-per-million (ppm) concentration of reverse-double fool\u2019s gold (i.e., real gold) is more than 440 times the concentrations currently found in other known deep-sea gold deposits globally, which tend to contain concentrations somewhere between 0.01 and 43 ppm. But not all of the Higashi-Aogashima Knoll\u2019s hydrothermal pyrite contained gold in these rich amounts.<\/p>\n

The so-called Central Cone Site contained pyrite with the highest concentrations, with a special formation of the crystalline mineral, known as colloform pyrite, containing the most gold. This colloform pyrite formed when superheated sulfurous emissions from the hydrothermal vents rapidly cooled as they mixed with cold seawater\u2014leading to chemical additions that may have facilitated the pyrite\u2019s gold-trapping internal structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cColloform pyrites with high lead and\/or copper concentrations in addition to arsenic concentration [\u2026] might have induced the high gold concentration in pyrite,\u201d the researchers wrote. \u201c[But] elucidating the mechanism remains a topic for future study.\u201d<\/p>\n

Very fine gold<\/h2>\n

One aspect of these gold deposits that surprised Morishita and his coauthors was how thinly interlaced they were within the pyrite, not in gold nuggets so much as woven in at an atomic level (more like \u201cgold capillaries\u201d than \u201cgold veins,\u201d I guess you could say). The discovery, in fact, was only possible through a highly detailed analysis of the pyrite\u2019s chemical makeup using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe first found \u2018invisible gold\u2019 in pyrite from the sulfide mound and active chimney of the deposits through the SIMS analysis,\u201d Morishita and his colleagues wrote.<\/p>\n

The unique chemistry of the Higashi-Aogashima Knoll Caldera\u2019s hydrothermal vents, with its imposing black smoker chimneys pumping out sulfide, might prove to be a model that helps researchers find other gold deposits just like it elsewhere in Earth\u2019s oceans. But, at roughly 2,690 feet (820 meters) below sea level, the caldera\u2019s \u201cinvisible gold\u201d may nevertheless prove to be uniquely close to the surface compared to other truly deep-sea hydrothermal vents.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture commercial development challenges are expected to be less difficult than other deeper deposits,\u201d the researchers noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fools-gold-japan-hydrothermal-vents-1200×675.jpg”] Japanese scientists discovered the undersea fields of Higashi-Aogashima Knoll Caldera\u2019s hydrothermal vents over a decade ago, but the mineral-rich deposits from these fissures continue to reveal bizarre surprises. In the years since, Japan has devoted both private and government resources toward recovering the many millions of tons of metallic ore once hidden […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-2043853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2043853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2043853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2043853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2043853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}