Gold-quartz placer nugget (1 cm across) from the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA.
This is a modern fluvial pebble composed of native gold (Au) and quartz (SiO2). The gold is ultimately derived from auriferous Precambrian basement rocks in the area of Lead, South Dakota. The now-inactive Homestake Mine, America's largest gold mine, is located in Lead (pronounced "Leed").
Gold masses that accumulate in river or stream gravels, or get trapped in fractures in bedrock-floored rivers, are called placer deposits - such gold is called placer gold.
Locality: Elk Creek, west of Rt. 385, southeast of the town of Lead, northern Black Hills, western South Dakota, USA.
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0CC BY 2.0 Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 truetrue
This image, originally posted to Flickr, was reviewed on 16 September 2014 by the administrator or reviewerLeoboudv, who confirmed that it was available on Flickr under the stated license on that date.
Captions
Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents