How is that minerals are found in veins of ore?

Question

Considering how the Earth was supposedly formed from scattered elements after the Big Bang, how is it that many minerals are congregated in localized deposits and not spread uniformly throughout the substance of the planet? How did valuable elemental minerals like gold, iron or copper come to be localized in just a few continuous veins in certain regions instead of found everywhere?

Is this an argument for at least limited Divine planning?

Yes, but gold, for instance, is basically inert, it's non-magnetic and doesn't react with anything. Why is it found only in certain places and not everywhere? What forces caused the sub-atomic building blocks to form gold and why only in certain areas?

Answer 1

WAY oversimplified!~

Suppose tha the earth did indeed start out at some point after the big bang as an amorphous homogeneous blob. The fact that it was spinning and cooling introduce a host of physical factors that would introduce inhomogeneity. For example, the crust is in the solid state. Differential temperatures, rates of cooling, pressures would drastically alter the rates and positions of crystallization and deposition of various minerals, according to mass, density, crystal structure, local chemistry. Further, secondary effects such as erosion and sedimentation could differentially deposit minerals according to physical characteristics, even if the starting mineral material were homogeneous.

Answer 2

You ask many questions and I will deal with them one by one.

How is (it) that minerals are found in veins of ore?
Ore minerals are emplaced by hydrothermal waters that remove elements from magmas and place them into the country rock. Veins are normally created by these hot waters due to the pressure fracturing the rock.

Considering how the Earth was supposedly formed from scattered elements after the Big Bang, how is it that many minerals are congregated in localized deposits and not spread uniformly throughout the substance of the planet?
It is a long time from the Big Bang (about 15 Ga, or billion years ago) to the formation of the Earth (4.5 Ga). Questions of this sort are best explained by Cosmology, a branch of Astronomy, a branch of Physics.

How did valuable "elemental minerals" (let's just call them "elements") like gold, iron or copper come to be localized in just a few continuous veins in certain regions instead of found everywhere?
Elements tend to become concentrated in the molten state, along with hydrothermal mineralization (called "skarns") of carbonates and other host rocks.

Is this an argument for at least limited Divine planning?
No, not in Science.

Additional Details
Yes, but gold, for instance, is basically inert, it's non-magnetic and doesn't react with anything.
So gold dosen't react with anything. Well, you had better tell tellurium that it is breaking your law. If I remember right, selenium also is breaking your law by combining with gold.

Why is it found only in certain places and not everywhere?
Gold is found everywhere, but the amounts are usually so small that it is undetectable.

What forces caused the sub-atomic building blocks to form gold and why only in certain areas?
Once again you are asking a question that belongs in the realm of Physics. Geology is about the chemistry of elements, not the physics of elements. It is not the sub-atomic building blocks (quarks, baryons, etc.) that determine if a substance is gold, it is the number of neutrons. After gold formed in supernovae explosions, it was the swirling of these explosions that formed protoplanets, long after the gold was formed in these explosions.

Answer 3

These minerals are far from being locallized. You will find gold anywhere on Earth. Your yard will actually have gold in it. Some areas more then others. It is the same with all metals. Don't confuse mining of metals to the actual dispersion of metals. We mine places where certain metals are concentrated becuase it is economic. It is not economic to process your entire yard for 100 dollars worth of gold.
Proof is in your body, you need all of these minerals in your food to live healthy, plants take them out of the soil and they also need them to grow healthy. Check out a multi vitamin and see what ingredients are in it, these are what is in the topsoil.

Also many of the heavier elements are concentrated at deeper levels in the Earth. Basically the lighter elements form the crust, mostly Al and Si oxides and the heavier elements have differentiated towards the mantle and core. Same way as if you put a scoop of mud in a test tube and shook it, when it settles out it will be in layers, heaviest at the bottom. Some geological process such as volcanics and hydrothermal activity have brought heavy metals to near surface where they are concentrated and can be mined.


You'll have to look elseware for evidence of god. Sorry.

Answer 4

Veins basically are created when you put pressure on different competent rocks. These will crack in different angles and when then sliding apart or together cavities will form. Circulating hydrothermal water will then start to precipitate elements it solved while going through the surrounding rock into those cavities. Note that veins are by no means the only places to find ore, nor are they actually relevant to modern mining.

Answer 5

Gold can occur in various situations. Basically gold can occur in most rocks even if in very low concentrations. But to be able to open a gold mine requires an economic concentration of the stuff. Gold is highly mobile in the hydrothermal ( hot fluids in rocks ) situation and will basically migrate to areas of low pressure in rocks. That is why, gold, like quartz veins , is often found associated with geological faults .See below as an example.


" Many north-south to northwest-southeast trending, second-order fault zones throughout the Hodgkinson province are spatiallyassociated with gold deposits. The simplified, regional-scale model geometry used in this study permitted variation of boundary conditions, material properties andstress regimes. This included variation of lithological properties, the absence of fault zones in some models, and the application of plane strain or transpression. The model outcomes illustrate the importance of a listric fault geometry for focusing deformation and fluid flow in zones of relatively high permeability and / or low rockstrength. Also, the orientation of fault zones with respect to the dominant far-field compressive stress regime is shown to be a key factor controlling deformation and fluid flow. In addition, fault bends and terminations areshown to influence significantly the distribution of deformation and fluid flow."

Answer 6

they formed AFTER the bang. They are in localized deposits because of time, seismic activity, and various other conditions.