this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Gold also isn't all that rare. It's value is so high because of jewelry marketing, not rarity.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Gold is rare, compared to just about every other element, in accessible areas of earth. All the gold ever discovered on Earth would fit inside a 23 meter (75 foot) cube. This is about 244 thousand tons, in all of human history.

Compare this to iron, where just the United States produces 46 Million tons in 2022 alone.

There is plenty of gold deep within the Earth - it is very dense, so it sank towards the core when Earth was recently formed - but on the surface and the proximal crust, it is not found in abundance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Is that 23mx23mx23m or 23 cubic meters?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

The first one, 23x23x23

[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Those...Are the same thing?

Edit: I thought they meant 23x23x23 as in dimensions not multiples

[–] southernbrewer 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

23x23x23 is 12167 cubic meters.

[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001 6 points 11 months ago

Okay I see where I fucked that up

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

That is a mind blowing fact about all gold fitting in 23 cubic meters. I had to fact check it because it sounds so absurd: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21969100

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You may be confusing with diamonds. Gold is, and in fact, any element heavier than iron are pretty rare because they cannot be created by stars alone according to current models, they need more extreme and rare astrophysics phenomenons like supernova and black holes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Yes I think that is the exact confusion I had.