Ask HN: Resources in one cubic mile of sea water

by digamber_kamat on 3/22/2010, 10:44 AM with 5 comments

One cubic mile of sea water contains — besides the 130 million tons of salt — 6 million tonnes of magnesium, 25 tons of gold, 135 tons of silver, etc.

Can some one point out to me a source which will validate (or invalidate) above statement?

  • by lifeisstillgood on 3/22/2010, 11:05 AM

    Gold measured in Seawater in 1990 - "just 1 gram of gold for every 100 million tonnes of sea water (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol 98, p 208)." http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12717242.800-science-g...

  • by lifeisstillgood on 3/22/2010, 12:03 PM

    cperciva, thank you for clarifying what I should have put in there in the first place.

    Anyway, this seems a good overview and is not wildly out with the other literature afaik.

    http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LbTDLa_2opsC&pg=PA26&...

    so, 130m tons of salt is supported, 6m tons of magnesium, but 1 ton of silver and 0.02 tons of gold, and commercial extraction seems limited to salt (obviously) magnesium and bromine. I suspect someone quoted the "boring" elements accurately and then upvoted the "fun" elements for you.