tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/platinum-18210/articlesPlatinum – The Conversation2023-11-05T13:01:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2147642023-11-05T13:01:50Z2023-11-05T13:01:50ZCobalt nanoparticles could become a significant player in the pursuit of clean energy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555884/original/file-20231025-19-xeztbl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2492%2C1645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cobalt nanoparticles can be used in fuel cells and increase their applications.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/cobalt-nanoparticles-could-become-a-significant-player-in-the-pursuit-of-clean-energy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>To help address climate change, we urgently need to transition to clean energy. The energy sector is a <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors">significant contributor</a> to greenhouse gas emissions, which are <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_SPM.pdf">the primary drivers of global warming</a>. </p>
<p>Our research team at Western University is innovating ways to generate clean electricity. Fuel cells are at the forefront of this endeavour, offering numerous advantages in the pursuit of sustainable energy solutions. </p>
<p>These devices offer a promising pathway to clean energy by efficiently converting chemical energy into electricity with only <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/fuel-cell-basics">water and heat as byproducts</a>. This makes them an environmentally friendly choice for electricity generation.</p>
<p>One of the most promising types of fuel cells is the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/types-fuel-cells">polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)</a> because of its applications in transportation, and portable and stationary power sources, where efficiency, responsiveness and reduced emissions are crucial factors.</p>
<h2>Platinum as a catalyst</h2>
<p>One of the major challenges hindering the widespread adoption of PEMFCs lies with the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/fuel-cells">use of platinum</a>, which is problematic due to its <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/01352385-372f-4b79-9446-a03c518ba28a">scarcity</a>. This dependency on platinum is due to its ability to facilitate the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84800-936-3_2">oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)</a>, which is a fundamental process in producing electrical energy within PEMFCs. </p>
<p>The ORR involves the reduction of oxygen molecules into water through a series of complex reactions. This process is responsible for generating the electrical power these fuel cells provide. The presence of platinum as a catalyst lowers the energy required for the reduction of oxygen molecules. Without platinum, the ORR would occur too slowly to yield practical and efficient electricity production.</p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/analysis/analysis-will-rising-platinum-and-iridium-prices-restrict-the-growth-of-pem-hydrogen-electrolysers-and-fuel-cells-/2-1-1460113">high cost and scarcity</a> of platinum present substantial challenges to the commercial viability of PEMFCs. The <a href="https://www.ief.org/news/energy-transition-to-trigger-huge-growth-in-platinum-for-hydrogen">increasing price</a> of platinum has made it economically prohibitive to use it in large-scale fuel cell production, preventing PEMFCs from becoming <a href="https://www.anl.gov/partnerships/enabling-fuel-cell-adoption">a mainstream clean energy solution</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556866/original/file-20231031-19-rbll9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a truck on a pile of rocks and dirt, three people in safety gear are in the foreground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556866/original/file-20231031-19-rbll9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556866/original/file-20231031-19-rbll9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556866/original/file-20231031-19-rbll9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556866/original/file-20231031-19-rbll9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556866/original/file-20231031-19-rbll9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556866/original/file-20231031-19-rbll9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556866/original/file-20231031-19-rbll9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The high cost and scarcity of platinum present substantial challenges to its use in large-scale fuel cell production.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Our research works on creating catalysts that can replace platinum effectively. Our research team leverages cutting-edge facilities like the <a href="https://www.lightsource.ca/">Canadian Light Source</a>, <a href="https://www.aps.anl.gov/">Advanced Photon Source</a>, and the <a href="https://www.nsrrc.org.tw/English/tps.aspx">Taiwan Photon Source</a>. </p>
<p>By harnessing these resources and technologies, we explore various strategies for catalyst development, gain profound insights into their structural and chemical characteristics, and better understand how they can advance our goal of reducing dependence on platinum. </p>
<h2>Intricate realm of catalyst design</h2>
<p>Our research explores catalyst design, with a specific focus on two fundamental techniques: alloying platinum with transition metals and crafting complex core-shell structures. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21017-6">Alloying platinum</a> is the process of mixing platinum with other transition metals, to enhance catalytic performance. This approach results in catalysts with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cnma.201900319">improved reactivity and durability</a>, rendering them highly effective across a broad spectrum of applications, including fuel cells.</p>
<p>In addition to alloying, our research also delves into the development of intricate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.2c00057">core-shell structures</a>. In this approach, a cost-effective metallic core is enveloped by several layers of shell made of another material, providing protection while further enhancing catalytic efficiency. </p>
<p>This design allows for precise control over catalytic reactions, surface property optimization and minimization of material wastage.</p>
<h2>Persistent challenges</h2>
<p>Despite our advancements, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/catal5031622">the durability of these catalysts</a> poses a challenge. Their inherent instability, which refers to their tendency to degrade, diminish in effectiveness or undergo undesirable alterations, is a substantial roadblock for real-world applications.</p>
<p>Our research team has found a potential solution: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.3c04274">the infusion of cobalt dopants into the surface and near-surface region of catalysts</a>. This creates platinum-based catalysts capable of withstanding harsh conditions and the passage of time. This significantly enhances the durability and effectiveness of these catalysts.</p>
<p>Our team developed novel particles — cobalt-doped palladium-platinum core-shell — which possess a distinctive octahedral structure and exceptional resilience to both harsh chemical environments and prolonged use. </p>
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<p>This innovative nanoscale structure, featuring a core of palladium and an outer shell of platinum, with the addition of cobalt atom into the platinum shell, provides these nanoparticles with exceptional durability. They exhibit a remarkable ability to withstand degradation and maintain their catalytic activity over extended periods.</p>
<p>Following a thorough examination involving 20,000 accelerated durability test cycles, designed to provide a better understanding of how catalysts degrade in carefully controlled laboratory conditions, their performance only saw a minimal decrease of two per cent when compared to their initial state at the beginning of the testing.</p>
<h2>Potential future</h2>
<p>Cobalt-doped palladium-platinum core-shell nanoparticles have the potential to revolutionize fuel cell technology. Their promise as highly efficient and enduring ORR catalysts points the way toward a more sustainable energy future.</p>
<p>Our research aligns with the urgent need to combat <a href="https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/climate-change">climate change as a global crisis</a>. By replacing fossil fuels with cleaner energy alternatives, we can contribute to a more sustainable and resilient future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tsun-Kong (T.K.) Sham receives funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canada Research Chair (CRC), Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ali Feizabadi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nanoparticles can help address a dependency on platinum — a rare and expensive material — to generate clean power.Tsun-Kong (T.K.) Sham, Distinguished University Professor, Chemistry, Western UniversityAli Feizabadi, Research Assistant, Chemistry, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1918552023-01-30T19:10:08Z2023-01-30T19:10:08ZThe hype is out of this world, but mining in space won’t save the Earth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506962/original/file-20230130-14-h5lwde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C2871%2C1612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Planetary Resources</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We know the world must move to cleaner energy sources to head off the worst effects of climate change, but the technology required for the transition is very <a href="https://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/961711588875536384/Minerals-for-Climate-Action-The-Mineral-Intensity-of-the-Clean-Energy-Transition.pdf">mineral-intensive</a>. So where will all these resources come from?</p>
<p>Many in the space industry are pointing beyond Earth. Asteroids and the Moon are thought to contain abundant platinum group elements needed in the transition, as well as other valuable resources. This has prompted <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/09/space-mining-business-still-highly-speculative.html">a push</a> towards commercial mining in outer space. </p>
<p>California-based company AstroForge is the latest company to make strides into the space mining rush. The company last week <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/asteroid-mining-startup-astroforge-plans-first-platinum-refining-space-missions">announced</a> plans to launch two missions this year – one to refine platinum from a sample of asteroid-like material, and another to find an asteroid near Earth to mine.</p>
<p>Proponents of mining in space often point to the potential benefits for Earth and its people. But how certain are these benefits? Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344922003627#ack0001">research</a> casts doubt on many of them.</p>
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<img alt="three men in suit jackets embrace" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506961/original/file-20230130-22-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Proponents of mining in space often point to the potential benefits for Earth and its people. Pictured: Officials from the Planetary Resources company in 2012 after announcing a plan to mine nearby asteroids. The company is now defunct.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elaine Thompson/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A very risky bet</h2>
<p>Space mining supporters often claim a bounty of space resources exist, and exploiting them would generate <a href="https://www.mining.com/infographic-the-facts-and-figures-that-make-space-mining-real/">trillions of dollars</a> in mining revenue.</p>
<p>But information on resources in space is scarce, highly varied and uncertain.</p>
<p>Such statements rely strongly on remote-sensing technology and modelling: techniques that use interpretations, estimates, assumptions and probabilities. Whether mineral deposits lying beyond Earth are commercially viable has not yet been proven. </p>
<p>Work on this is underway. The <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex">OSIRIS-REx space mission</a>, for example, gathered a small sample from near-Earth asteroid Bennu, and is bringing it back to Earth this year so it can be studied. </p>
<p>This year’s <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/asteroid-mining-startup-astroforge-plans-first-platinum-refining-space-missions?leadSource=uverify%20wall">AstroForge</a> missions also aim to firm up the industry’s viability.</p>
<p>But so far, investing in the extraction of space resources is even more speculative than mining on Earth. </p>
<p>Metallic minerals are present in meteorites and other space rocks. But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063322001945">research</a> suggests that, except for platinum group elements, the concentrations of most metals in space materials may be lower than on Earth. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D95QeTK9bEc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">NASA’s OSIRIS-REx space mission will arrive back on Earth this year.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where will the waste go?</h2>
<p>Mining on Earth often requires robust equipment to extract, handle and process large volumes of rock. Most of the rock is disposed of as waste once the material of interest, such as copper, is obtained. </p>
<p>Waste disposal will be even more challenging in space. The full environmental and safety implications are not yet clear. But we know space debris already <a href="https://theconversation.com/space-debris-is-coming-down-more-frequently-what-are-the-chances-it-could-hit-someone-or-damage-property-188062">falls to Earth</a> quite frequently.</p>
<p>For example, space debris found in the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales last year <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/03/spacex-capsule-confirmed-as-source-of-debris-that-landed-on-australian-farm">was confirmed</a> as belonging to a craft owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. And in the US state of Oklahoma in 1997, a woman out exercising was <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98700&page=1">reportedly hit</a> in the shoulder by a piece of falling space junk.</p>
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<p>Mining on Earth often <a href="https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/faq/how-can-metal-mining-impact-environment">damages the natural environment</a>, impacting land, waterways, air quality and ecosystems. </p>
<p>In places where mining is tightly regulated, environmental and human safety concerns must be addressed. But there are also countless examples around the world where mining regulation is lax. </p>
<p>To date, there are <a href="https://theconversation.com/space-mining-is-not-science-fiction-and-canada-could-figure-prominently-155855">no regulations</a> or adequate waste management plans for mining off-Earth. Space mining has a lot to learn from the best practices and missteps of mining on Earth. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/space-debris-is-coming-down-more-frequently-what-are-the-chances-it-could-hit-someone-or-damage-property-188062">Space debris is coming down more frequently. What are the chances it could hit someone or damage property?</a>
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<h2>Space is not a supermarket</h2>
<p>In 2017, US space entrepreneur Jeff Bezos <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344922003627">stated</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every kind of element that you need is available in space in very large quantities. And so, over the next couple of hundred years, that will allow us to both continue to have a dynamic, expanding, growing, thriving, interesting civilisation, while still protecting this planet. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So will space really provide all the minerals Earth needs in coming centuries?</p>
<p>The current hype around off-Earth extraction centres on platinum group elements such as palladium, rhodium and platinum. These elements are present in metallic asteroids.</p>
<p>Platinum is used in catalytic converters to <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2014/3064/pdf/fs2014-3064.pdf">decrease emissions in car exhausts</a>, as well as in medical equipment and electronic devices. </p>
<p>But we need a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57234610">much broader spectrum of commodities</a> for the low-carbon transition. For example, large quantities of lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements are needed to make batteries and magnets. </p>
<p><a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ac235f">Researchers claim</a> to have uncovered two metal-rich near-Earth asteroids that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2021/10/19/the-age-of-space-mining-just-got-closer-as-scientists-discover-two-asteroids-whose-precious-metals-would-exceed-global-reserves/?sh=54d1f6ca713b">could contain</a> very large quantities of iron, nickel and cobalt.</p>
<p>But the technology for accessing these minerals is still a long way off (if it happens at all). But the renewable energy transition must happen urgently – and for now, the minerals will be extracted on Earth.</p>
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<img alt="aerial view of a lithium mine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506967/original/file-20230130-22-2ulu5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Large volumes of lithium are needed in the clean energy transition. Pictured: a lithium mine in the Northern Territory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fleet Space Technologies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A new colonialism</h2>
<p>The current space race reflects a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-billionaire-space-race-reflects-a-colonial-mindset-that-fails-to-imagine-a-different-world-165235">colonial mindset</a> in which the powerful rush to stake a claim in new territories – and whoever gets there first gets the riches.</p>
<p>This narrative is one of “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1c1daa87-c48e-4d19-a574-046eadb5b665">techno-futurism</a>”, where progress is measured by wealth generation, which in turn relies on technology development. </p>
<p>Should this <a href="https://theconversation.com/lunar-gold-rush-is-about-to-start-and-we-could-exhaust-the-solar-system-in-fewer-than-500-years-117450">gold-rush style bonanza</a> prove viable, only a small proportion of people would pocket the profits. The gap between the very rich and the rest of society would only widen.</p>
<h2>Look down, not up</h2>
<p>Viable and responsible space mining is a very distant prospect. But climate change is an urgent problem that needs solutions right now. </p>
<p>Despite the many downsides, mining on Earth remains essential to the transition to a low-carbon energy economy.</p>
<p>Rather than space mining, positive environmental and social outcomes on Earth are better achieved by ensuring terrestrial mining is done in the most <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051429">sustainable</a> way possible. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-lithium-for-clean-energy-but-rio-tintos-planned-serbian-mine-reminds-us-it-shouldnt-come-at-any-cost-167902">We need lithium for clean energy, but Rio Tinto's planned Serbian mine reminds us it shouldn't come at any cost</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191855/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juliana Segura-Salazar received funding from European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant No 730411 (2016–2020): IMP@CT, Integrated Mobile modularised Plant and Containerised Tools for selective, low-impact mining of small high-grade deposits. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:k.moore@exeter.ac.uk">k.moore@exeter.ac.uk</a> received funding from University of Exeter Global Partnership in Earth Humanities; a NERC Discipline Hopping for Environmental Solutions grant ‘Mining unCommon Ground’; European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant No 730411 (2016–2020): IMP@CT, Integrated Mobile modularised Plant and Containerised Tools for selective, low-impact mining of small high-grade deposits. </span></em></p>Proponents of mining in space often point to the potential benefits for Earth and its people. But this research casts doubt on many of them.Juliana Segura-Salazar, Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandKathryn Moore, Senior Lecturer in Critical and Green Technology Metals, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1182442019-10-22T09:46:36Z2019-10-22T09:46:36ZNew evidence that an extraterrestrial collision 12,800 years ago triggered an abrupt climate change for Earth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297264/original/file-20191015-98666-10pjw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4508%2C2974&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The muck that's been accumulating at the bottom of this lake for 20,000 years is like a climate time capsule.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christopher R. Moore</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What kicked off the Earth’s rapid cooling 12,800 years ago?</p>
<p>In the space of just a couple of years, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1157707">average temperatures abruptly dropped</a>, resulting in temperatures as much as 14 degrees Fahrenheit cooler in some regions of the Northern Hemisphere. If a drop like that happened today, it would mean the average temperature of Miami Beach would quickly change to that of current Montreal, Canada. Layers of ice in Greenland show that this cool period in the Northern Hemisphere lasted about 1,400 years.</p>
<p>This climate event, called the Younger Dryas by scientists, marked the beginning of a decline in ice-age megafauna, such as mammoth and mastodon, eventually leading to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.011802.132415">extinction</a> of more than 35 genera of animals across North America. Although disputed, some research suggests that Younger Dryas environmental changes led to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.04.020">population decline among the Native Americans</a> known for their <a href="http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=sciaa_staffpub">distinctive Clovis spear points</a>.</p>
<p>Conventional geologic wisdom blames the Younger Dryas on the failure of glacial ice dams holding back huge lakes in central North America and the sudden, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0169-6">massive blast of freshwater</a> they released into the north Atlantic. This freshwater influx <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1207381109">shut down ocean circulation</a> and ended up cooling the climate.</p>
<p>Some geologists, however, subscribe to what is called the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0706977104">impact hypothesis</a>: the idea that a fragmented comet or asteroid collided with the Earth 12,800 years ago and caused this abrupt climate event. Along with disrupting the glacial ice-sheet and shutting down ocean currents, this hypothesis holds that the extraterrestrial impact also triggered an “impact winter” by setting off massive wildfires that blocked sunlight with their smoke.</p>
<p>The evidence is mounting that the cause of the Younger Dryas’ cooling climate came from outer space. My own recent fieldwork at a South Carolina lake that has been around for at least 20,000 years <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51552-8">adds to the growing pile of evidence</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297964/original/file-20191021-56203-1kxxguk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297964/original/file-20191021-56203-1kxxguk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297964/original/file-20191021-56203-1kxxguk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297964/original/file-20191021-56203-1kxxguk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297964/original/file-20191021-56203-1kxxguk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297964/original/file-20191021-56203-1kxxguk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297964/original/file-20191021-56203-1kxxguk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297964/original/file-20191021-56203-1kxxguk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A collision from space would leave its mark on Earth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/meteor-shower-elements-this-image-furnished-522119488">Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What would an Earth impact leave behind?</h2>
<p>Around the globe, scientists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/695704">analyzing ocean, lake, terrestrial</a> and ice core records have identified <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/695703">large peaks in particles associated with burning</a>, such as charcoal and soot, right at the time the Younger Dryas kicked in. These would be natural results of the cataclysmic wildfires you would expect to see in the wake of Earth taking an extraterrestrial hit. As much as 10% of global forests and grasslands may have burned at this time.</p>
<p>Looking for more clues, researchers have pored through the widely distributed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0706977104">Younger Dryas Boundary</a> stratigraphic layer. That’s a distinctive layer of sediments laid down over a given period of time by processes like large floods or movement of sediment by wind or water. If you imagine the surface of the Earth as like a cake, the Younger Dryas Boundary is the layer that was frosted onto its surface 12,800 years ago, subsequently covered by other layers over the millennia. </p>
<p>In the last few years, scientists have found a variety of exotic impact-related materials in the Younger Dryas Boundary layer all over the globe.</p>
<p>These include high-temperature iron and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1301760110">silica-rich</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1204453109">tiny magnetic spheres</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0906374106">nanodiamonds</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/677046">soot</a>, high-temperature <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-38089-y">melt-glass</a>, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1134/S1028334X14070022">elevated concentrations</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geoa.12132">nickel</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1304059110">osmium</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0706977104">iridium</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/srep44031">platinum</a>.</p>
<p>While many studies have provided evidence supporting the Younger Dryas impact, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GM001209">others</a> have failed to replicate evidence. Some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155470">have suggested</a> that materials such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1401150111">microspherules and nanodiamonds</a> can be formed by other processes and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-009-9032-4">do not require the impact</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2724">of a comet or asteroid</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297266/original/file-20191015-98640-wxmxew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297266/original/file-20191015-98640-wxmxew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297266/original/file-20191015-98640-wxmxew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=156&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297266/original/file-20191015-98640-wxmxew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297266/original/file-20191015-98640-wxmxew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=156&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297266/original/file-20191015-98640-wxmxew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=196&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297266/original/file-20191015-98640-wxmxew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=196&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297266/original/file-20191015-98640-wxmxew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=196&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">White Pond has been part of this landscape for 20,000 years or more.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christopher R. Moore</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A view of 12,800 years ago from White Pond</h2>
<p>In the southeastern United States, there are no ice cores to turn to in the quest for ancient climate data. Instead, geologists and archaeologists like me can look to natural lakes. They accumulate sediments over time, preserving layer by layer a record of past climate and environmental conditions.</p>
<p>White Pond is one such natural lake, situated in southern Kershaw County, South Carolina. It covers nearly 26 hectares and is generally shallow, less than 2 meters even at its deepest portions. Within the lake itself, peat and organic-rich mud and silt deposits upwards of 6-meters thick have accumulated at least <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2018.95">since the peak of the last ice age</a> more than 20,000 years ago.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289276/original/file-20190823-170910-e1am8w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289276/original/file-20190823-170910-e1am8w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289276/original/file-20190823-170910-e1am8w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289276/original/file-20190823-170910-e1am8w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289276/original/file-20190823-170910-e1am8w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289276/original/file-20190823-170910-e1am8w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289276/original/file-20190823-170910-e1am8w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289276/original/file-20190823-170910-e1am8w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Collecting sediment cores from White Pond in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christopher R. Moore</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So in 2016, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51552-8">my colleagues and I extracted sediment</a> from the bottom of White Pond. Using 4-meter-long tubes, we were able to preserve the order and integrity of the many sediment layers that have accumulated over the eons.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297262/original/file-20191015-98661-g325k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297262/original/file-20191015-98661-g325k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297262/original/file-20191015-98661-g325k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297262/original/file-20191015-98661-g325k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297262/original/file-20191015-98661-g325k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297262/original/file-20191015-98661-g325k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297262/original/file-20191015-98661-g325k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297262/original/file-20191015-98661-g325k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The long sediment cores are cut in half in order to extract samples for analysis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christopher R. Moore</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on preserved seeds and wood charcoal that we <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-radiocarbon-dating-and-how-does-it-work-9690">radiocarbon dated</a>, my team determined there was about a 10-centimeter thick layer that dated to the Younger Dryas Boundary, from between 12,835 and 12,735 years ago. That is where we concentrated our hunt for evidence of an extraterrestrial impact.</p>
<p>We were particularly looking for platinum. This dense metal is present in the Earth’s crust only at very low concentrations but is common in comets and asteroids. Previous research had identified a large “platinum anomaly” – widespread elevated levels of platinum, consistent with a global extraterrestrial impact source in Younger Dryas layers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1303924110">from Greenland ice cores</a> as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/srep44031">across North</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-38089-y">South America</a>. </p>
<p>Most recently, the Younger Dryas platinum anomaly has been found in <a href="http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/28129">South Africa</a>. This discovery significantly extends the geographic range of the anomaly and adds support to the idea that the Younger Dryas impact <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-a-large-meteorite-hit-the-earth-12-800-years-ago-heres-new-evidence-122426">was indeed a global event</a>.</p>
<p>Volcanic eruptions are another possible source of platinum, but Younger Dryas Boundary sites with elevated platinum do not have other markers of large-scale volcanism.</p>
<h2>More evidence of an extraterrestrial impact</h2>
<p>In the White Pond samples, we did indeed find high levels of platinum. The sediments also had an unusual ratio of platinum to palladium. </p>
<p>Both of these rare earth elements occur naturally in very small quantities. The fact that there was so much more platinum than palladium suggests that the extra platinum came from an outside source, such as atmospheric fallout in the aftermath of an extraterrestrial impact.</p>
<p>My team also found a large increase in soot, indicative of large-scale regional wildfires. Additionally, the amount of fungal spores that are usually associated with the dung of large herbivores decreased in this layer compared to previous time periods, suggesting a sudden decline in ice-age megafauna in the region at this time.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289279/original/file-20190823-170922-1cb0gw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289279/original/file-20190823-170922-1cb0gw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289279/original/file-20190823-170922-1cb0gw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289279/original/file-20190823-170922-1cb0gw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289279/original/file-20190823-170922-1cb0gw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289279/original/file-20190823-170922-1cb0gw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289279/original/file-20190823-170922-1cb0gw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289279/original/file-20190823-170922-1cb0gw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photomicrograph of <em>Sporormiella</em> – fungal spores associated with the dung of megaherbivores – from White Pond.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Angelina G. Perrotti</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While my colleagues and I can show that the platinum and soot anomalies and fungal spore decline all happened at the same time, we cannot prove a cause.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51552-8">The data from White Pond</a> are, however, consistent with the growing body of evidence that a comet or asteroid collision caused continent-scale environmental calamity 12,800 years ago, via vast burning and a brief impact winter. The climate change associated with the Younger Dryas, megafaunal extinctions and temporary declines or shifts in early Clovis hunter-gatherer populations in North America at this time may have their origins in space.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297263/original/file-20191015-98653-8p6zr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297263/original/file-20191015-98653-8p6zr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297263/original/file-20191015-98653-8p6zr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297263/original/file-20191015-98653-8p6zr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297263/original/file-20191015-98653-8p6zr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=855&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297263/original/file-20191015-98653-8p6zr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1074&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297263/original/file-20191015-98653-8p6zr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1074&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297263/original/file-20191015-98653-8p6zr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1074&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A White Pond sediment core is like a timeline of the stratigraphic layers. What researchers found in each layer provides hints of climate and environment at that time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock.com/Allen West/NASA/Sedwick C (2008) PLoS Biol 6(4): e99/Martin Pate/Southeast Archaeological Center</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher R. Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why did Earth’s climate rapidly cool 12,800 years ago? Evidence is mounting that a comet or asteroid collision is to blame, with new support coming from the bottom of a South Carolina lake.Christopher R. Moore, Archaeologist and Special Projects Director at the Savannah River Archaeological Research Program and South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/861042017-10-24T20:18:24Z2017-10-24T20:18:24ZCosmic alchemy: Colliding neutron stars show us how the universe creates gold<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191637/original/file-20171024-30571-frs0vu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=96%2C0%2C803%2C573&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Illustration of hot, dense, expanding cloud of debris stripped from the neutron stars just before they collided.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12740">NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For thousands of years, humans have searched for a way to turn matter into gold. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/660139">Ancient alchemists</a> considered this precious metal to be the highest form of matter. As human knowledge advanced, the mystical aspects of alchemy gave way to the sciences we know today. And yet, with all our advances in science and technology, the origin story of gold remained unknown. Until now. </p>
<p>Finally, scientists know how the universe makes gold. Using our <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9">most advanced telescopes and detectors</a>, we’ve seen it created in the cosmic fire of the two colliding stars first detected by LIGO via the gravitational wave they emitted.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191658/original/file-20171024-30605-ei0pxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191658/original/file-20171024-30605-ei0pxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191658/original/file-20171024-30605-ei0pxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191658/original/file-20171024-30605-ei0pxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191658/original/file-20171024-30605-ei0pxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191658/original/file-20171024-30605-ei0pxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191658/original/file-20171024-30605-ei0pxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191658/original/file-20171024-30605-ei0pxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The electromagnetic radiation captured from GW170817 now confirms that elements heavier than iron are synthesized in the aftermath of neutron star collisions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-led-teams-strike-cosmic-gold-80074">Jennifer Johnson/SDSS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Origins of our elements</h2>
<p>Scientists have been able to piece together where many of the elements of the periodic table come from. The Big Bang <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.nucl.56.080805.140437">created hydrogen</a>, the lightest and most abundant element. As stars shine, they fuse hydrogen into heavier elements like carbon and oxygen, the elements of life. In their dying years, stars create the common metals – aluminum and iron – and blast them out into space in different types of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.astro.38.1.191">supernova</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-astro-082708-101737">explosions</a>.</p>
<p>For decades, scientists have theorized that these stellar explosions also explained the origin of the heaviest and most rare elements, like gold. But they were missing a piece of the story. It hinges on the object left behind by the death of a massive star: a neutron star. Neutron stars pack one-and-a-half times the mass of the sun into a ball only 10 miles across. A teaspoon of material from their surface would weigh 10 million tons.</p>
<p>Many stars in the universe are in binary systems – two stars bound by gravity and orbiting around each other (think Luke’s home planet’s suns in “Star Wars”). A pair of massive stars might eventually end their lives as a pair of neutron stars. The neutron stars orbit each other for hundreds of millions of years. But Einstein says that their dance cannot last forever. Eventually, they must collide.</p>
<h2>Massive collision, detected multiple ways</h2>
<p>On the morning of August 17, 2017, a ripple in space passed through our planet. It was detected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors. This cosmic disturbance came from a pair of city-sized neutron stars colliding at one third the speed of light. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.161101">energy of this collision</a> surpassed any atom-smashing laboratory on Earth.</p>
<p>Hearing about the collision, astronomers around the world, <a href="http://kilonova.org/about.html">including</a> <a href="https://dabrown.expressions.syr.edu/">us</a>, jumped into action. Telescopes large and small scanned the patch of sky where the gravitational waves came from. Twelve hours later, three telescopes caught sight of a brand new star – called a kilonova – in a galaxy called NGC 4993, about 130 million light years from Earth.</p>
<p>Astronomers had captured the light from the cosmic fire of the colliding neutron stars. It was time to point the world’s biggest and best telescopes toward the new star to see the visible and infrared light from the collision’s aftermath. In Chile, the Gemini telescope swerved its large 26-foot mirror to the kilonova. NASA steered the Hubble to the same location.</p>
<figure>
<img src="http://kilonova.org/img/DECam_fading_kn_final.gif">
<figcaption><span class="caption">Movie of the visible light from the kilonova fading away in the galaxy NGC 4993, 130 million light years away from Earth.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just like the embers of an intense campfire grow cold and dim, the afterglow of this cosmic fire quickly faded away. Within days the visible light faded away, leaving behind a warm infrared glow, which eventually disappeared as well. </p>
<h2>Observing the universe forging gold</h2>
<p>But in this fading light was encoded the answer to the age-old question of how gold is made.</p>
<p>Shine sunlight through a prism and you will see our sun’s spectrum – the colors of the rainbow spread from short wavelength blue light to long wavelength red light. This spectrum contains the fingerprints of the elements bound up and forged in the sun. Each element is marked by a unique fingerprint of lines in the spectrum, reflecting the different atomic structure.</p>
<p>The spectrum of the kilonova contained the fingerprints of the heaviest elements in the universe. Its light carried the telltale signature of the neutron-star material decaying into platinum, gold and other so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-process">“r-process” elements</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191689/original/file-20171024-30613-1iljobe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191689/original/file-20171024-30613-1iljobe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191689/original/file-20171024-30613-1iljobe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191689/original/file-20171024-30613-1iljobe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191689/original/file-20171024-30613-1iljobe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191689/original/file-20171024-30613-1iljobe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191689/original/file-20171024-30613-1iljobe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191689/original/file-20171024-30613-1iljobe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visible and infrared spectrum of the kilonova. The broad peaks and valleys in the spectrum are the fingerprints of heavy element creation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matt Nicholl</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the first time, humans had seen alchemy in action, the universe turning matter into gold. And not just a small amount: This one collision created at least 10 Earths’ worth of gold. You might be wearing some gold or platinum jewelry right now. Take a look at it. That metal was created in the atomic fire of a neutron star collision in our own galaxy billions of years ago – a collision just like the one seen on August 17.</p>
<p>And what of the gold produced in this collision? It will be blown out into the cosmos and mixed with dust and gas from its host galaxy. Perhaps one day it will form part of a new planet whose inhabitants will embark on a millennia-long quest to understand its origin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86104/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Duncan Brown receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edo Berger receives funding from the National Science Foundation and NASA. </span></em></p>Until the recent observation of merging neutron stars, how the heaviest elements come to be was a mystery. But their fingerprints are all over this cosmic collision.Duncan Brown, Professor of Physics, Syracuse UniversityEdo Berger, Professor of Astronomy, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/693622016-11-29T16:00:33Z2016-11-29T16:00:33ZIndia’s golden quest to tackle ‘black money’ and the lessons from a century ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147940/original/image-20161129-10973-4hikzo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C7%2C2496%2C1657&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-198009308/stock-photo-indian-jewelry-store-in-delhi.html?src=lhtk7-4BMnvxVQxWwTAR5g-1-91">Alexandra Lande/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Indian government has been trying to reduce its citizen’s demand for imported gold through a number of means over the last few years. This is part of a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e52dab06-b093-11e6-a37c-f4a01f1b0fa1">wider crack down</a> on currency used in the black market, that included the withdrawal and replacement of its two largest denomination bank notes in early November. The strategy will likely have some unintended consequences if we take our cues from the events of 1910.</p>
<p>Indians’ famous love for gold has created serious and ongoing economic issues for the nation. In 2011, Australian investment bank Macquarie <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Households-hold-950bn-gold-in-India/articleshow/10987660.cms">estimated that 78%</a> of India’s household savings were held in gold. </p>
<p>In effect, this means that India has a dual currency system where people choose to save mostly in gold rather than rrupees. This is unlike any other major economy and begs the question: how do you wean a population off a precious metal? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147929/original/image-20161129-10973-6ooj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147929/original/image-20161129-10973-6ooj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147929/original/image-20161129-10973-6ooj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147929/original/image-20161129-10973-6ooj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147929/original/image-20161129-10973-6ooj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147929/original/image-20161129-10973-6ooj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147929/original/image-20161129-10973-6ooj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147929/original/image-20161129-10973-6ooj3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wedded to the metal?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/priyamn/7001697104/in/photolist-7cY6CB-bEHwBA-9kb9dj-93SWe5-q8mreM-aVF1Pc-aKDkoi-kL8PPH-aKDMGF-6PpEKY-8PVuLY-chvDw7-53xSrT-77nExM-dpo4vU-6PRGo-8nvdQt-4dbGK-4QWaNh-dJFaP-6svm7T-6szwry-9mae1S-8nvsye-6svn5g-zFnUp4-4Cdu5A-Hw1vzy-rpyxiB-rqsRrQ">Priyambada Nath/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Bling and Buy sale</h2>
<p>Building up savings in gold rather than deposits in a bank creates a permanent drag on India’s growth. This happens because the savings do not increase the available funds for lending within the banking system. One reason it is so difficult to put this gold to work as investment capital is <a href="http://www.gold.org/supply-and-demand/interactive-gold-market-charting">that 79%</a> of it is bought as jewellery, rather than bars or coins. </p>
<p>India is the world’s largest consumer of gold jewellery at nearly 700 tonnes in 2015 according to <a href="https://forms.thomsonreuters.com/gfms/">GFMS Gold Survey 2016</a>. However, it mines less than two tonnes of gold a year. This means India must import gold worth US$25 billion each year, pushing up their current account deficit and pulling down the value of the rupee. </p>
<p>In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government introduced a <a href="http://dea.gov.in/sites/default/files/SGB_201617_Series3.pdf">Sovereign Gold Bond</a> scheme which allowed gold holders to swap their gold for an interest bearing bond. At the end of the bond’s life investors would effectively be returned the same amount of gold. This move reduced the minimum amount of gold necessary to participate in such a scheme to <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/business/gold-bonds-are-a-clear-winner-but-high-chances-of-deposit-scheme-becoming-a-flop-show-2428174.html">two grammes</a>. As of November 2016, 14 tonnes of gold had been subscribed to the two gold bond issues, with another <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/business/gold-bonds-are-a-clear-winner-but-high-chances-of-deposit-scheme-becoming-a-flop-show-2428174.html">five tonnes</a> collected through the older gold monetisation scheme (which has a larger minimum deposit of 30 grams). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147934/original/image-20161129-10973-1wdcggu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147934/original/image-20161129-10973-1wdcggu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147934/original/image-20161129-10973-1wdcggu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147934/original/image-20161129-10973-1wdcggu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147934/original/image-20161129-10973-1wdcggu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147934/original/image-20161129-10973-1wdcggu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147934/original/image-20161129-10973-1wdcggu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147934/original/image-20161129-10973-1wdcggu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bullion for you.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bullionvault/3591747543/in/photolist-6toDpM-6tsMKb-yVLdU-yVLmE-9JXozk-daMpB7-9cTtaM-9Hb93C-CUBkDa-Dv8Toj-4JwPYp-yVL6g-tdrAwN-6kgYU4-oR8Z4F-yVKZG-6oeEc1-yVKEH-6tsNhb-sxZN9E-6toE8x-bHSmix-buXPuA-yVKMs-5HaEtQ-6tsLF3-tdCqbK-97aMsD-6toyNZ-6tsKKW-9MaLTw-tv5TaH-cQrPQq-dDq9hJ-bwjUhb-6tsLaC-6tsLwb-6toAUR-ednZbA-4U4esk-9tgBve-e2yHUe-9TptiU-6TGhzC-fNn8fS-9ZiiS5-dV3n1X-e2EmMU-6tS45a-dHxN4w">Bullion Vault/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, relative to India’s estimated privately held gold stock of 20,000 tonnes these deposits represent tiny amounts and it still doesn’t seem like a solution.</p>
<h2>Unintended consequences</h2>
<p>An alternative would be to permanently reduce gold imports. To that end, in 2013, the government started to increase import taxes on gold imports to 6%; this now stands at 10%. However, falling gold prices during that period meant that there was still a 12% increase in gold imports in 2015 as consumers snapped up what they saw as bargain prices. </p>
<p>And here is where we go back more than 100 years to see how this all worked out last time. You see, India has battled precious metals imports for quite some time. In 1910 the government of India increased the import tariffs on silver from 5% to 11%. A market report in 1912, by <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435063926844;view=1up;seq=257">Pixley & Abell</a>, a gold wholesaler, pointed to a 28% fall in silver demand in the Indian Bazaars in the three years following the increase. They attributed this to not just a fall in demand for silver due to tax increases, but also a substitution of gold for silver in people’s savings as gold became more attractive on a relative basis.</p>
<p>Between 1910 and 1930 net imports of silver in India fell from 98m ounces to 31m, according to British Geological Survey Reports. After this time India gradually became the world’s largest gold consumer, a position it finally lost to China in 2015. </p>
<p>And it seems a return to silver as a major investment for consumers in India may be on the cards. Following the recent import tax hikes for gold, 2015 saw Indian silver imports grow to almost 8,000 tonnes, 14% up on the previous 2014 record. At the same time, demand for gold jewellery, which accounts for 75% of all Indian gold demand, is down <a href="http://www.gold.org/supply-and-demand/gold-demand-trends/back-issues/gold-demand-trends-q3-2016/jewellery">30%</a> for the 12 months to the end of september 2016, according to the World Gold Council. This points to a possible shift back to silver as a more prominent investment in India. </p>
<p>Gold makes up the vast majority of Indian jewellery sales. But the graph below shows the rapid growth in silver jewellery demand in India, which is up over 600% in ten years, relative to marginal growth of only 25% in gold jewellery demand. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147450/original/image-20161124-15368-18owhry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147450/original/image-20161124-15368-18owhry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147450/original/image-20161124-15368-18owhry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147450/original/image-20161124-15368-18owhry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147450/original/image-20161124-15368-18owhry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147450/original/image-20161124-15368-18owhry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147450/original/image-20161124-15368-18owhry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147450/original/image-20161124-15368-18owhry.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Growth in Indian Gold and Silver Jewellery Demand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomson Reuters GFMS Gold 2016 and Silver Survey 2016</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course silver is not the only precious metal investment option available. If investors want a more compact form of wealth, then platinum, worth 56 times more per ounce, might suit. But a swap to silver in India, as was the norm pre-World War I, seems more likely and could have a major effect on prices. For a sense of scale, the Indian gold Jewellery market in 2015 was worth US$25 billion, while the total world silver jewellery market <a href="https://forms.thomsonreuters.com/gfms/">was worth only US$3.5 billion</a>. </p>
<p>Even a small substitution from gold to silver would result in a massive increase in the price of silver. A 10% reallocation from gold jewellery investment to silver in India would nearly double world silver jewellery demand. Mines and other sources would not be able to fill the gap immediately; prices would rise, further fuelling demand and creating a new, shiny headache for those trying to marshal India’s unusual economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69362/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fergal O'Connor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Problems occur when a country falls in love with gold, and silver might be about to get a boost from proposed solutions.Fergal O'Connor, Senior Lecturer in Finance, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/638482016-08-15T15:09:51Z2016-08-15T15:09:51ZBilly goes to Marikana: the staged lives and times of two mining towns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134100/original/image-20160815-15238-kcssmc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Meshack Mavuso played the role of 'The Man with the Green Blanket' in 'Marikana the Musical'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">@marikanathemusical</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I had the opportunity to watch a performance of “<a href="http://billyelliotthemusical.com/">Billy Elliot - The Musical</a>” in Bradford, UK in June 2016. The story explores the experiences of mining communities in the 1980s in northern England. The story of Billy Elliot, a young orphan boy growing up in a mining town during the miners’ strike in the mid-80s in the UK took me to South Africa. Specifically to Marikana, the Lonmin mine north west of Johannesburg, where South African police shot and killed 34 striking mineworkers on Thursday 16 August, 2012. </p>
<p>The emotional response I felt in the middle of a very British audience in Bradford was in fact the memory of Marikana, a tragedy that also led to a play, <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/entertainment/2014/10/10/marikana-the-musical-hits-the-stage">“Marikana the Musical”</a> in 2014. I realise that is what theatre is meant to do: the arts aim to evoke feelings over and above appreciation of the artistic piece.</p>
<p>Billy Elliot took me on a journey back home to the familiar losses of lives, work and sense of community when mining suddenly dies. The long term effects of the loss of livelihoods when mines shut down in northern England in the 1980s are still felt to date. I also remembered the more recent losses in Zambia and <a href="http://www.africanindy.com/business/mining-woes-rock-botswana-1520740">Botswana</a>’s northern cities when <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2009/06/economy-zambia-hard-times-on-the-copperbelt/">copper prices</a> crashed. Communities whose lifeline was dependent on the mines have gone from surviving to grinding poverty.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134111/original/image-20160815-27210-t81vtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134111/original/image-20160815-27210-t81vtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134111/original/image-20160815-27210-t81vtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134111/original/image-20160815-27210-t81vtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134111/original/image-20160815-27210-t81vtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134111/original/image-20160815-27210-t81vtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134111/original/image-20160815-27210-t81vtp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Actor Trent Kowalik from ‘Billy Elliot, The Musical’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gary Hershorn /Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Billy Elliot was a boy who wanted to do ballet. Billy kept his secret from his father and brother, pretending that that he was taking boxing lessons. </p>
<p>In a community steeped in mining traditions and a strong sense of masculinity a boy doing ballet was a no-no. With help from his ballet teacher, he triumphs and eventually realises his dream.</p>
<h2>Mining cultures</h2>
<p>Southern Africa is no stranger to mining cultures. For over 200 years men journeyed to the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/first-mines-are-proclaimed-johannesburg">gold</a> and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/all-glitters-rock-which-future-will-be-built-emilia-potenza">diamond</a> mines of Johannesburg and Kimberley respectively. When <a href="http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-a-brief-history-of-mining-in-south-africa">platinum</a>, which was discovered in South Africa in 1924, became the new gold many more came. For boys going to the mines was part of their rite of passage. They fashioned their dreams and manhood around mining. Many came from far and endured long separation from their families. Their remittances kept communities alive. </p>
<p>In the mines they formed strong bonds of brotherhood to survive. Music and dance became their outlet and to date the gumboot dance remains a popular artistic act. Musicians like <a href="http://www.hughmasekela.co.za/">Hugh Masekela</a> and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/miriam-makeba">Miriam Makeba</a> have done award winning songs about the life and times of miners.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cPxmmMpfG88?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Hugh Masekela’s song ‘Stimela’ about the lives of mineworkers.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Marikana brought a new awakening to the brutality of mining life. Following months of strike action the miners of Marikana tragically encountered a brutal police response on August 16 four years ago. Many who saw it broadcast live on television still ask – why? A <a href="http://www.marikanacomm.org.za/">commission of inquiry</a> has <a href="http://www.wwmp.org.za/index.php/2-uncategorised/161-the-struggle-for-justice-and-restitution-the-bodymaps-of-the-widows-of-marikana">come and gone</a>. Many lost their jobs and returned empty handed to their communities. Marikana will never be the same again.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O56d-xd8AuM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Thirty four mineworkers were killed in the Marikana massacre.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tears and emotions in the theatre</h2>
<p>Director <a href="http://gq.co.za/2015/07/aubrey-sekhabi/">Aubrey Sekhabi</a> brought Marikana to stage. I was fortunate to attend the premiere of the <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-15-marikana-musical-wins-big-at-naledi-theatre-awards">award winning</a> “Marikana the Musical” in 2014. The vivid representation of the “Man with the green blanket” – Mgcineni “Mambush” Noki, one of the miners killed in 2012, was one of the strikers’ leaders – brought me to tears and elicited emotions I had not felt since watching the news on that fateful evening in August 2012.</p>
<p>A year later the award winning documentary “<a href="http://www.minersshotdown.co.za/">Miners Shot Down</a>” (2015) brought a reminder of Marikana’s unresolved questions. The widows, survivors and families live with the physical, emotional and mental scars of those fateful days. Miners lost their lives and jobs. Communities lost lifelines. Hopes died particularly for children who dreamt of going to school, getting a new chance at life to break the cycle of poverty. All those dreams have been deferred or are dead and buried.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134104/original/image-20160815-15253-jfwboj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134104/original/image-20160815-15253-jfwboj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134104/original/image-20160815-15253-jfwboj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134104/original/image-20160815-15253-jfwboj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134104/original/image-20160815-15253-jfwboj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134104/original/image-20160815-15253-jfwboj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134104/original/image-20160815-15253-jfwboj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mgcineni ‘Mambush’ Noki talking to the police hostage negotiator - from the documentary ‘Miners Shot Down’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.minersshotdown.co.za/">Miners Shot Down</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many questions have been asked about the role of leaders in the Marikana affair. Like the UK miners’ strike, the economic livelihood of the miners and their communities were at stake. They were pitted against big business and a changing capitalist world. </p>
<p>In the case of Marikana <a href="https://www.lonmin.com/">Lonmin</a>, a listed mining company, was calling the shots with vested interests of the newly rich black middle class who had acquired shareholding through the policy of <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/business/trends/empowerment/bee.htm#.V7GLlfl97IU">Black Economic Empowerment</a> (BEE). With its roots in Lonrho (the amalgam of London and Rhodesia) Lonmin was no stranger to mining and doing business in Africa. The huge divide between executive pay and wages for workers was a bone of contention. The conditions of miners including the use of hostels brought to the fore issues of inequalities and poverty.</p>
<p>The platinum mines are located in areas of <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-08-18-marikana-i-dont-see-any-difference-in-living-conditions/#.V7GMYfl97IU">rural poverty</a> with small isolated villages in South Africa’s North West province. Small shanty and shack settlements quickly form around mines and with them come the negative impacts of crime, diseases and other social ills. Mining executives live in cities in exclusive neighbourhoods like Sandton, north of Johannesburg. Today, <a href="http://www.miningweekly.com/article/lost-narrative-of-silicosis-tb-among-mineworkers-post-marikana-2012-11-09/rep_id:3650">TB</a> and HIV/AIDS haunt mining communities like Marikana and families of miners who have returned home.</p>
<h2>Trapped in poverty</h2>
<p>Some communities and parts of others in the north of England were to an extent salvaged by government social protection albeit with varied degrees of success of commitment from the UK’s politicians. The people of Marikana, however, are still trapped in abject poverty.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134107/original/image-20160815-15277-1c4oxzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134107/original/image-20160815-15277-1c4oxzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134107/original/image-20160815-15277-1c4oxzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134107/original/image-20160815-15277-1c4oxzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134107/original/image-20160815-15277-1c4oxzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134107/original/image-20160815-15277-1c4oxzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134107/original/image-20160815-15277-1c4oxzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A child sits outside a locked shack in Nkaneng township, Marikana’s informal settlement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In southern Africa, the lives of communities dependent on mining are shattered. The miners wait for answers, compensation and for someone to do something. Through art we encounter their pain and anguish with no signs of hope at the end of the dark tunnel.</p>
<p>Unlike Billy Elliot, the <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-04-12-in-pictures-the-children-of-marikana/#.V7GRUfl97IU">children of Marikana</a> are doomed. Leaving the theatre after watching “Billy Elliot” I thought of home … and how different life can be for a boy called Billy in England. </p>
<p>In Marikana, a boy – let’s call him “Bashi” – could be in the dusty alleys of Marikana. Billy realised his dream. “Bashi” looks at the dark night. He stares at the stars and wonders where help will come from.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63848/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alinah Kelo Segobye received funding from the Rotary Peace Centre for her visiting scholar term at the University of Bradford in 2016. </span></em></p>Two musicals set in working class mining communities – one in the UK and the other in South Africa – have diametrically opposed messages: one of hope; the other, despair.Alinah Kelo Segobye, Associate Professor (Archaeology), University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/438782015-06-26T04:54:21Z2015-06-26T04:54:21ZTelling the Marikana story: an invitation to look more closely at what’s in front of us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86458/original/image-20150625-22649-6cum8j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C176%2C800%2C491&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Supporters listening to Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, at Freedom Park in Marikana, South Africa</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Larkin/Institute</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://fourthwallbooks.com/platinum-by-jason-larkin-jack-shenker-2/">Platinum</a>, a collaboration between London-based writer <a href="http://www.jackshenker.net">Jack Shenker</a> and British photographer <a href="http://jasonlarkin.co.uk">Jason Larkin</a>, seeks in both content and presentation of text and photographs to remind us that we are after all privileged observers of the events leading up to the massacre of at least 34 mine workers in South Africa’s platinum belt.</p>
<p>Larkin has spent a great deal of time thinking about how to make books and get them into the world. The stories he has covered as a photographer in the last several years have compelled him to think about the politics of art books – who makes them, who distributes them and, most importantly, who can afford them.</p>
<p>Platinum, the second collaboration between Larkin and Shenker, reflects these sensibilities. Larkin’s photographs accompany Shenker’s essay “Marikana”, a wide-ranging analysis of how South Africa got to <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/police-defective-plan-blame-marikana-massacre-150625163334763.html">Marikana</a>, and how this event might come to define the country in years to come. Shenker is unflinching in his criticism of big business and the mining industry, and Larkin’s photographs offer a fairly dispassionate but astute look at the people and the landscape of the platinum belt around Rustenburg. </p>
<p>The publication of these two elements of the story takes the form of a loose-leafed folder of sorts: six posters printed back-to-back in full colour, and the essay — in English and with a translation in isiXhosa by Lulu Mfazwe-Mojapelo – as a separate booklet. All are held together with an elastic band inside a plain card sleeve with the title handstamped on the front.</p>
<p>The thinking is to disrupt expectations about what a book might comprise, as a way, albeit imperfectly, of reflecting on Shenker’s central theme: that your perspective on things like Marikana depends very much on where you are looking from. The traditional photobook, that usually luxurious, costly publication on heavy art paper, is quite literally dismantled in Platinum. Perhaps this conceptual and aesthetic manouevre will persuade us to look more carefully at what is right before us. Platinum is also in part a gesture meant to include a wider than usual audience.</p>
<p>In their previous collaboration called <a href="http://www.jackshenker.net/egypt/cairo-divided.html">Cairo Divided</a> about the manifestations and effects of the <a href="http://middleeast.about.com/od/humanrightsdemocracy/a/Definition-Of-The-Arab-Spring.htm">Arab Spring</a> in Egypt, Larkin and Shenker settled on a broadsheet with photographs and an essay in English and Arabic. They felt this was the best way to disseminate the story they sought to tell, but also to exploit the democratic possibilities that a free newspaper on cheap paper represented. It was also a way of commenting, albeit obliquely, on the uprising itself.</p>
<p>The success of that publication persuaded Larkin that it was an excellent way of getting another important South African story – about the re-mining of Johannesburg’s golden heaps of toxic waste – into the world.</p>
<p>Although his photographs of the mine dumps were several years in the making, the newspaper version of <a href="http://fourthwallbooks.com/after-the-mines-by-jason-larkin/">After the Mines</a> was a fast production and the relative cheapness of newsprint meant that it could be sold for a modest US$6.60. And once again, a translation of the essay by journalist Mara Kardas-Nelson, this time into isiZulu, the most widely spoken language in Gauteng where most of the dumps are situated, was an important element of the publication. </p>
<p>The aim for After the Mines, and now Platinum, is to bring such stories to public attention as quickly and as inexpensively as possible, and to attempt wider distribution than the usual art-book-buying market.</p>
<h2>Extract from Platinum by Jason Larkin and Jack Shenker</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86412/original/image-20150625-12990-1l4jpq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86412/original/image-20150625-12990-1l4jpq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86412/original/image-20150625-12990-1l4jpq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86412/original/image-20150625-12990-1l4jpq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86412/original/image-20150625-12990-1l4jpq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86412/original/image-20150625-12990-1l4jpq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86412/original/image-20150625-12990-1l4jpq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86412/original/image-20150625-12990-1l4jpq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Platinum.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the Marikana massacre, each time miners have laid down their tools, strikes have also mushroomed elsewhere across other industries and workplaces around the country. Yet anyone with full-time work does not count among the very poorest in the nation. Statistically speaking, most platinum rock-drillers rank in the seventh or eighth income decile, making them better off than around two-thirds of the population.</p>
<p>Given the privations of Nkaneng, one of the informal shack settlements scattered around the mine shafts in Marikana, and other hardscrabble settlements like it, that fact speaks volumes about how grossly divided South Africa’s population has become.</p>
<p>But it remains the case that for a huge proportion of the black population, a full-time mining job and membership of a union would represent a staggering advancement of their status; instead they are simply members of the precariat, living insecure, unstable lives with access to piecemeal, temporary work at best, or joblessness at worst.</p>
<p>Under neoliberalism, that category of citizen is growing in most developed countries, where enervated social rights and zero-hours contracts are increasingly the norm.</p>
<p>In light of the relatively privileged position of those lucky enough to have stable jobs on the platinum belt, it would be easy to dismiss strikes in Marikana as somewhat disconnected from the rest of the country’s strife; an important struggle for the mineworkers themselves, no doubt, but hardly consequential to the millions of South Africans who are unemployed, or homeless, or fighting eviction, or just generally existing in a zone of uncertainty where each day teeters on the very pivot-edge of survival.</p>
<p>But any such dismissal would be dangerously shortsighted. To appreciate why unrest here matters, you only had to hang around in Marikana on the evening following the rally in Wonderkop stadium in 2014 where several thousand striking miners gathered, once the pitch had emptied out and dusk had fallen.</p>
<p>Behind the silhouette of the Rowland shaft machinery, fires soon appeared above the main road linking Marikana to the N4 highway. Residents of a settlement called Mmaditlokwe who had been forcibly relocated there by a nearby platinum mine the previous year, were protesting at their continued lack of services and their apparent inability to get either the mining company or government officials to take their concerns seriously. Sharp cracks echoed over the surrounding scrubland as demonstrators dragged burning tyres in circles across the asphalt and security forces fired rubber bullets into the air to try to disperse the crowd.</p>
<p>At that same moment police were also patrolling a few miles to the east, in the small towns of Bapong and Majakeneng, where local rebellions against economic deprivation had erupted several times in recent weeks. Residents say a three-month old baby died in the unrest after inhaling government tear-gas.</p>
<p>An 18-year-old youth in Majakeneng told me by the roadside:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The older generation have been hypnotised by the ANC. Our generation can think for ourselves.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43878/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Law-Viljoen is a director and the editor of Fourthwall Books, which published this book.</span></em></p>The much-awaited report into the Marikana Massacre of 2012 is finally out. A new book tells how the miners’ struggles went on to influence labour relations across industries in South Africa.Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.