World's Finest Gold Specimen Probed With Los Alamos Neutrons
Abstract
Using neutron characterization techniques a team of scientists have peered inside one of the most unique examples of wire gold, understanding for the first time the specimen's structure and possible formation process. The 263 gram, 12 centimeter tall specimen, known as the Ram's Horn, belongs to the collection of the Mineralogical and Geological Museum Harvard University (MGMH). "Almost nothing other than the existence of the specimen is known about wire gold," said Sven Vogel, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory's neutron science center, LANSCE, a half-mile-long particle accelerator that provides high- and low-energy protons and neutrons for a wide variety of scientific research. Found in 1887 at the Ground Hog Mine in Red Cliff, Colorado, mysteriously shaped like a twisted bunch of wires instead of the more recognizable golden nugget, the Ram's Horn has baffled mineralogists since its discovery. The unknown: what is its fundamental structure and how did it form? "Some native metals, a metal or metal alloy found in nature can occur in what is called wire morphology," said John Rakovan, Professor of Mineralogy at Miami University in Ohio. "Much more common in silver, the wire morphology is rarely seen in gold samples and this specimen ismore »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1659418
- Resource Type:
- Multimedia
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES; GOLD WIRE; NEUTRONS; LANSCE; GEOLOGICAL SAMPLES; CRYSTALS
Citation Formats
Rakovan, John, Alonso-Perez, Raquel, and Vogel, Sven. World's Finest Gold Specimen Probed With Los Alamos Neutrons. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web.
Rakovan, John, Alonso-Perez, Raquel, & Vogel, Sven. World's Finest Gold Specimen Probed With Los Alamos Neutrons. United States.
Rakovan, John, Alonso-Perez, Raquel, and Vogel, Sven. Wed .
"World's Finest Gold Specimen Probed With Los Alamos Neutrons". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1659418.
@article{osti_1659418,
title = {World's Finest Gold Specimen Probed With Los Alamos Neutrons},
author = {Rakovan, John and Alonso-Perez, Raquel and Vogel, Sven},
abstractNote = {Using neutron characterization techniques a team of scientists have peered inside one of the most unique examples of wire gold, understanding for the first time the specimen's structure and possible formation process. The 263 gram, 12 centimeter tall specimen, known as the Ram's Horn, belongs to the collection of the Mineralogical and Geological Museum Harvard University (MGMH). "Almost nothing other than the existence of the specimen is known about wire gold," said Sven Vogel, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory's neutron science center, LANSCE, a half-mile-long particle accelerator that provides high- and low-energy protons and neutrons for a wide variety of scientific research. Found in 1887 at the Ground Hog Mine in Red Cliff, Colorado, mysteriously shaped like a twisted bunch of wires instead of the more recognizable golden nugget, the Ram's Horn has baffled mineralogists since its discovery. The unknown: what is its fundamental structure and how did it form? "Some native metals, a metal or metal alloy found in nature can occur in what is called wire morphology," said John Rakovan, Professor of Mineralogy at Miami University in Ohio. "Much more common in silver, the wire morphology is rarely seen in gold samples and this specimen is without question the finest known example."},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Feb 13 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Wed Feb 13 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}