How can a gold nugget remain on the surface like that?

[shiro-san]

Hello everyone

Newbie question:

I'm watching this docu and in this scene https://youtu.be/YFF8ci_Fv9c?t=13m24s they're showing how a guy in Australia picks up a gold nugget from the surface of the ground (not bedrock either).

But how is that possible? I thought the gold sinks. Just a day before this scene there was rain, so it didn't sink even in the mud for some reason. Is that possible in places other than Australia?

 

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[Goldfleks]

It's well known that in Australias fabled nugget fields, gold rains from the sky. Which is why it was found right on the surface the day after a storm.

 

[meMiner]

Everything in Australia is known to be backwards, including the flow of water down the toilet. Their nuggets go the opposite direction to ours.

 

[shiro-san]

was hoping for more serious answers, but thanks for the chuckle i guess

 

[Goldfleks]

was hoping for more serious answers, but thanks for the chuckle i guess

Lol. Chances are it was a seeded nugget if it was a video on youtube and the nugget was on the surface, and not on bedrock or in caliche.

But then again, gold is where you find it.

 

[shiro-san]

I did some additional research and they're called "Sunbakers", surface gold nuggets, they're very rare supposedly and are usually found on bedrock. The one in the video is only 1 gram so I'm assuming that's why it didn't sink or maybe it was seeded, because the only pictures I found on the internet are surface nuggets found on solid rocks.

 

[Terry Soloman]

After a good rain in the desert, you can absolutely find nuggets on the surface. Check out the lead stacked up behind these natural riffles.

 

[Aufisher]

Those darn lead nuggets are everywhere! What a tease!

 

[deserdog]

Also in areas that have old palcer deposits that are now on the surface through erosion, wind can remove lots of the lighter material.

 

[shiro-san]

ah i see! thank you Terry and deserdog! now it makes sense

 

[Goldwasher]

its an elluvial deposit. The reef eroded more from wind than water. The other materials have been blowing away from the gold for eons. Golds density doesn't have the same magic without water. In a flat spot with no slope thats what happens.
There is a lot of elluvial gold sitting at and right below the surface.

 

[gunsil]

After a good rain in the desert, you can absolutely find nuggets on the surface. Check out the lead stacked up behind these natural riffles.

Great photos Terry!! I was amazed at how much brass was lying all over the desert between Wickenburg and Prescott. My buddy out there says he hates detecting for gold there because all he seems to find are numerous slugs and casings.

 

[DDancer]

Much like Goldwasher says. However surface gold, sun bakers, are also found in alluvial fields in Australia as well. I and many others I've hunted with have found sun bakers in West Australia. Some over an ounce, not me sadly but I keep trying , the thing is you have to understand the geology and the climate where they are being picked up. The geology is very old and what were once mountians are now hills or just flats. Most of the lighter stuff has been eroded away but not by massive amounts of water but mostly wind action, solar heating and movement by gravity. This creates conditions in which gold pretty much just sits where it fell out and any movement has been over a very long, slow, period of time. This also leads to concentrated "patches" of gold where the likelihood of finding gold not just on the top but all the way thru the soil to bedrock are very good. In some area's where there has been sufficient water to move material in the distant past concentrations of gold will occur as well. Many end up locked away in calichi (a cement like material) and over time those deposites erode and leave patches much like elluvial deposits.
Sun bakers are uncommon but not rare and always a treat to find. Even here in the USA sun backers are often picked up.

My sunbaker from last year, only found 2 and sorry I already picked this one up.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Another item to add to this discussion is the extreme age of the Australian continent. [I forgot to add the following detail about erosion in my initial response.](Because of this extreme age and weathering, a large portion of the continent is severely eroded, leaving minerals either exposed, or near the surface in some instances, unlike most of North America where the Rocky Mountains, in particular, are still growing.) Others have touched on this with the aspect of erosion, but that also adds, I believe, to more surface gold, or sun-bakers, in Australia. Having said that, I've found nuggets on the surface in multiple-areas I've detected, and they're there for a variety of reasons: glacial dam blow-outs where unimaginable masses of water and rock blew out in an incredible rush of water, widely dispersing a formerly deeper deposit of placer gold that was suddenly uprooted to be left high and dry on the top of boulders, clay, a nugget sitting on top of a rock or boulder, etc.; or nuggets left by wind erosion as Terry has said; or left high and dry when a stream flow drops leaving the gold on exposed clay or bedrock; or when nuggets have fallen off of a truck or loader on their way to a wash plant. So, there's a variety of ways those sun-bakers get to be where they are.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[beekbuster]

i have only found two pieces of gold with my detector so far , one was in a bedrock crack, the other was about 10 grains and was withing a half inch of the surface in loose soil. not decomposed bedrock soil, it was dirt. i was dumbfounded

 

[blindpig]

Shiro-San ,. Hi ,.yeah , Out here in so.cali we call 'em sun bakers ,. now I've found maybe 1/2 doz. ? of 'em ,. don't believe I saw any of them right off, only after hearing the vip-vip from the detector . But they are a sight ,. and I believe worth a insitu pic when found. I'll add pic of one here . Seems ,. the common link as many said here ,. arid windswept elluvial /alluvial deposit's are the womb for many of these sun bakers .I'll also add a lot of my gold is found within a few in. of the surface,. so ??
Also ,. specing is a real deal ,. or was ,. I lived in Alice Springs in the N.T. of Australia back in the 70's {I was but a piglet back then} Anyway,. The Aboriginal people would bring in "speced" nuggets , meteorites ,Austrolites [SP?],. gem-stones . We even had a few old fellas come along on a few gem hunts ,. out in the Harts Range,. they seemed always able to find a few stones . Now,. I can only assume ,.The old prospectors ,.if they were smart could have learned a thing or two from the Aboriginals ,. like survival,. then maybe "specing" ,. they know that land inside out,. they even have a few old story's about it.
Hope this helps ,. Blindpig

 

[ivan salis]

rain often exposes many things by washing away the loose dirt soil and thus filtering it away leaving whatever items are contained with the loose soil laying upon the harder base soil under it ..here in America .....indain arrowheads and such are often found this way in farm fields and on hilltop village areas

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Great photos Terry!! I was amazed at how much brass was lying all over the desert between Wickenburg and Prescott. My buddy out there says he hates detecting for gold there because all he seems to find are numerous slugs and casings.

That's my stomping grounds too and I can confirm the hell out of that fact.

 

[shiro-san]

thank you for the responses everyone, fascinating info! Wish there was more documentaries with computer animations that show the erosion process, glacier movements etc. It seems fascinating just trying to picture this stuff.