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Geology Question For Those Guys Where The Coriolis Effect Turns The Other Way / Or The Aussie Types ;)


KD0CAC

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Not too long ago one of the local TV channels started showing Aussie Gold show .

What I started to notice almost every episode showed flat ground ?

So wondering how that works , from my understanding of geology [ limited ] we need generally plate tectonics / movement , heat , pressure , mountains etc.

So some guesses on my end , Australia has some of the oldest land masses , so all the high spots have worn-off ?    But then the river valleys do not seem to be there / deep ?

Is that more of the coriolis effect  

Hell I can't afford to get back to CA etc. , otherwise I would come down there to play 😉

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Nah, OZ has rugged mountainous gold country, has flat gold country, desert gold country and varying gold country in between these extremes, OZ is a big Island that in area is not much smaller then the US in area and we have have similar varying gold country I suspect. Tis just that the flat gold country is where the gold shows are at. 

My backyard gold country up in FNQ is not too far off the equator thus we zip around fast but tis rugged billy goat country where you need one leg longer than the other ie. has not eroded greatly since its last upheaval. Like the old Irish saying "gold tis where tis"..

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As Norvic said all terrains are here. These shots are were I got my first ¼ ounce of gold by myself once I got my wheels, over 55 years ago. Walhalla is the start of Alpine Walking Trail.

The Australian Alps Walking Track winds through the high country of Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT. It traverses rugged remote alpine country and bushwalkers must always be experienced, self reliant and have good navigation skills. To walk the whole trail can take between 5 and 8 weeks. Food drops or a support crew are necessary, as the trail passes through no towns, although it passes close to the ski resorts of Mt Hotham, Falls Creek, Mt Baw Baw, Thredbo, Charlotte Pass and Perisher. The 650 kilometre track generally follows ridges and high plains through some of the highest country in Australia.   In many ways, it is the grandest and most difficult of all the long distance tracks in Australia. It is not the longest but with over 27,000 metres of climbing and descending it is indeed a tough walk (equivalent to more than 3 ascents and descents of Mt Everest!). This equates to between 550m and 800m of climbing and descending each day - definitely not a flat walk! It also crosses a lot of Australia's best alpine scenery making it a very scenic varied walk.

 The start of the walk  at the towns rotunda. I have walked solo over the first 200 Km both ways as well as some of the other sections all of which has Gold mining history. Note the start of the track heading up from the right of the rotunda.

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 Walhalla's gold value at only $600 a ounce.

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As you can see not flat like the shows you see.

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7 hours ago, geof_junk said:

As Norvic said all terrains are here. These shots are were I got my first ¼ ounce of gold by myself once I got my wheels, over 55 years ago. Walhalla is the start of Alpine Walking Trail.

Great pics, thanks for sharing. Beautiful!

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Still wanting some geological discussion , none above so far ?

Again , it's not a show I watch all the way through , just when I am going through the channels to see what's on , I stop & watch for a few min. , but so far every time I do , the seen is all flat ground , with sometimes hills mountains in the distance  , from most of what I have seen in the US , the big gold is in the mountains , with smaller gold in the flat lands ?

So again some geology explaining , thanks .

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KDOCAC,

Depending on where the show you saw shoot the view is where the answer to your questions are.  Australia, as mentioned above, has various geology of various ages depending on location.  Here in the US much of or gold geology is pretty much dependent on young and tectonicly active geology, thus rugged and mountainous area's are where gold found.  Australia's geology is much more stable and much older.  Australia's tectonics are more pronounced and younger on the east coast and their west is stable so much of the land is effectively flat there.  The way one aussie explained it to me in the West is that the mountains have essentially eroded away and left the iron and gold behind.  A similar process occurs in our own western deserts.

Having detected WA's gold fields many times, yes much of it appears flat.  Especially on camera.  But there's a  lot of rolling out there as well as some steep hikes.

Bartett patch.jpg

Bartville camp.jpg

buddies flys.jpg

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7 hours ago, KD0CAC said:

Still wanting some geological discussion , none above so far ?

Again , it's not a show I watch all the way through , just when I am going through the channels to see what's on , I stop & watch for a few min. , but so far every time I do , the seen is all flat ground , with sometimes hills mountains in the distance  , from most of what I have seen in the US , the big gold is in the mountains , with smaller gold in the flat lands ?

So again some geology explaining , thanks .

Perhaps you didn’t see Trent’s post?

 

15 hours ago, Trent King said:

The WA side is a lot older and different to the east coast.  

There are hills here and basically all are associated with harder iron sections in the greenstone belts.  Greenstone belts are mostly highly metamorphosed basalt.

The weathering profile here in the deserts are a result of a very long time with no real water flow.  The majority of weathering here is from chemical weathering and wind, but it has been happening for so long that areas have weathered down several hundred meters.  When it weathers like this you end up with the majority of gold patches on the surface, flat ground directly above the source.

A bit simplified but typing interferes with my afternoon beer. 🍻
 

refering to central goldfields, Pilbara is slightly different again.

 

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Ok Trent & Dancer replies were what I was guessing , and replies that worked for me , thanks 

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