Here's the Earth, all well separated with all of the metals where they're supposed to be, in the core.
And then this planet was salted with meteorite debris that brought metals with it, including gold.
That's the surprising conclusion of the origin of gold to Earth's surface.
Even though the planet had a new supply of gold, there wasn't anything to see because it was just too dilute.
The gold that there was was a tiny fraction of the Earth's crust, and it was spread out around the planet. It was really rare.
And yet, billions of years later, a human could just pick up a nugget of gold out of the landscape.
To get from one to the other, the planet had one final trick to play.
With only 1g of gold for every 1,000 tonnes of the Earth's crust, there had to be a way to concentrate the tiny particles of gold into the colour we see today.
And across the surface of the planet is something that can do just that.
In the streams around Jamestown, prospector Brent Shock relies on the properties of water to seek his fortune, just like the original Gold Rush pioneers.
