When earthquakes squeeze quartz crystals, the mineral generates electricity that attracts gold particles. Pierre Longnus via Getty Images Earthquakes may help prospectors strike gold: When these ...

Geologists have known for decades that gold forms in quartz with the help of earthquakes, but now they have worked out exactly how the setting and seismic waves combine to form large nuggets. When you ...

Gold has always been a hot commodity. But these days, finding a nugget isn’t too tricky: Much of the world’s gold is mined from natural veins of quartz, a glassy mineral that streaks through large ...

For decades, researchers have known that earthquakes, quartz, and gold were linked—nearly 75% of gold circulating today came from nuggets originally embedded in quartz deposits near faults. But in ...