Comment by csours
2 years ago
Before reading, iron dissolving due to higher reactivity (including bacterial action) because temperatures are higher
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After reading:
> "Scientists who have studied these rusting rivers agree that the ultimate cause is climate change. Kobuk Valley National Park has warmed by 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.32 degrees Fahrenheit) since 2006 and could get another 10.2 degrees C hotter by 2100, a greater increase than projected for any other national park. The heat may already have begun to thaw 40 percent of the park's permafrost"
> "Some researchers think acid from minerals is leaching iron out of bedrock that has been exposed to water for the first time in millennia. Others think bacteria are mobilizing iron from the soil in thawing wetlands."
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Other thoughts: iron bearing silicates often contain gold. New gold rush?
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Things like this have surely happened before but not while there were so many people around
Extinctions have happened before too, but that doesn't make them good
> Other thoughts: iron bearing silicates often contain gold. New gold rush?
Could a significant amount of gold be extracted from the water that way? It would likely be a much more environmentally friendly way to mine gold given that there would be no digging required.
If they could make it work at scale, they'd have done it with ocean water by now.
That's the sci-fi dream: all the elements you could want end up dissolved in varying amounts in seawater. It's unfortunately a hard engineering problem.
It would be significantly more concentrated in this river water. As far as environmentally friendly, maybe, but not necessarily.