Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Platinum exists in higher abundances on the Moon and in meteorites. Correspondingly, platinum is found in slightly higher abundances at sites of bolide impact on Earth that are associated with resulting post-impact volcanism, and can be mined economically; the Sudbury Basin is one such example. [37]
Naturally occurring platinum and platinum-rich alloys were known by pre-Columbian Americans for many years. [5] However, even though the metal was used by pre-Columbian peoples, the first European reference to platinum appears in 1557 in the writings of the Italian humanist Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558) as a description of a mysterious metal found in Central American mines between ...
A small box from the burial of the Pharaoh Shepenupet II (died around 650 BC) was found to be decorated with gold-platinum hieroglyphics, [36] but the Egyptians may not have recognised that there was platinum in their gold. [37] [38] First European description of a metal found in South American gold was in 1557 by Julius Caesar Scaliger.
Rank Country/Region Platinum production (kilograms) Year World 180,000 2019 1: South Africa: 130,000 2019 2: Russia: 22,000 2019 3: Zimbabwe: 15,000 2019 4: Canada
The other metals discovered before the Scientific Revolution largely fit the pattern, except for high-melting platinum: Bismuth melts at 272 °C (521 °F) [21] Zinc melts at 420 °C (787 °F), [21] but importantly boils at 907 °C (1665 °F), a temperature below the melting point of silver. Consequently, at the temperatures needed to reduce ...
Add in high levels of platinum found from Syria to South Carolina—rare in Earth’s soil, but incredibly common in comets—and the location of both magnetic balls of iron known as ...
Only gold, silver, copper and the platinum group occur native in large amounts. [citation needed] Over geological time scales, very few metals can resist natural weathering processes like oxidation, so mainly the less reactive metals such as gold and platinum are found as native metals. The others usually occur as isolated pockets where a ...
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!