The great gold-forming epoch
Fluids driven through mountain roots deposit quartz veins that still supply much of the world's gold.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 20 million years
- Known to
- ± 20 million years
- Era
- Neoarchean, Archean
Between roughly 2,660 and 2,640 million years ago, hot fluids move through fault networks in the Abitibi and other Archean belts, precipitating gold in quartz-carbonate veins. More than 60% of Abitibi's gold formed in this late orogenic episode rather than during the volcanism that built the belt. Neoarchean greenstone belts remain among the most productive gold provinces on Earth.