1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
Tjis msy be a dumb question but, do we know what on-the-surface deposits look like for valuable ore-bearing minerals or had we basically mined all of them before we thought to study them?
I doubt they'd look too different than when underground, but I'm curious how the biosphere might react to some of these.
Comment by Indemnity4 at 14/09/2022 at 23:39 UTC*
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Good news! There are lots of remote areas of the planet that still have surface deposits of minerals. People are using Google maps and satellite images to find deposits.
For context, here are some random Google images of largest iron ore deposit in the world[1]. It's a lot of red dirt.
Mostly, surface minerals just look like a pile of dirt.
Back in the day teams of geologists would be sent on weeks long hiking trips to just *look around*. They got very good at identify minerals visually, then back it up with a few simple handheld tests because hauling a backpack full of rocks is no fun. There are some fun and interesting surface minerals that are heavily catalogued by geologists. Worth a Google dive if you get interested.