Precious metals arrive on Earth in meteorites

According to researchers from the universities of Bristol and Oxford, these metals are currently available on the terrestrial surface due to a meteor shower, rich in precious metals, between 3,000 and 4,000 million years ago. Apparently, these metals also existed among their components at the time of the creation of the Earth. Metals, however, have a great tendency to join with iron and became part of the core of the Earth when it was formed.

In addition to precious metals, meteorites gave rise to wolfram, modifying the proportion of wolfram isotopes on the earth's surface.

To this conclusion the researchers have arrived analyzing some rocks of 2,800 million years. They retain the proportions of the components of the Earth and the isotopes prior to the meteor shower and have found that the ratio of two isotopes of the wolfram (182 W / 184 W) was then 13 times that of the current rocks.

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Eusko Jaurlaritzako Industria, Merkataritza eta Turismo Saila