Mount Erebus, a volcano in Antarctica, expels R$32,000 in gold per day; get to know

Have you ever heard of a volcano that spews gold dust? This is what the Mount Erebusone of the most active volcanoes on the planet. There are around 80 grams of gold per day, equivalent to around R$32,000.

The structure, which has an elevation of 3,700 meters, is located in Antarctica, on Ross Island, part of the famous Pacific Ring of Fire, where the 1,600 active volcanoes. The name Erebus is a reference to the personification of darkness in Greek mythology, according to IFL Science, a British scientific journal that explains that the volcano was erupting when it was first sighted in 1841.

Mount Erebus regularly expels clouds of gas and steam and, in previous episodes of its activities, it even ejected blocks of partially melted rock, an episode known as a “volcanic bomb”. The gold, in turn, is released through the bursts of gases, in tiny crystals of metallic gold, measuring up to 20 micrometers.

Antarctic researchers have already found traces of gold in the air a thousand kilometers away from Mount Erebus. As it is a remote and difficult to access location, its activity is monitored via satellite, according to the Smithsonian Institute.