what was the effect of the gold rush on california's environment?
The impact that the Gold Gush had on California’s landscape was devastating because of the methods that the miners used to collect the gold. Millions of gallons of water was used for hydraulic mining but most of the water was never recycled. Panning or using a “Rocker or Cradle” didn’t have any negative effects, but when the “Long Tom” was discovered to need a fast moving source of water riverbanks were diverted to where the gold was found. In addition to the millions of gallons of water wasted the hillsides turned into massive amounts of debris and people were sometimes killed by the force of the water sprayed at the hillsides.
These are two of the simplest methods of placer mining. Panning was the first form of placer gold mining in which you would put gravel containing gold and water in a small pan and swirl the gravel and water in the pan until the gold settles at the bottom. An upgraded version of panning would be using a “Rocker” or “Cradle”. This tool would have a box with a “sieve” and an incline at a downward angle with “riffles” at the bottom it would be mounted on rocker of a rocking chair usually. What would happen is you would put gravel and water in the top and then rock the “Rocker” back and forth and the bigger rocks and gold nuggets would get caught in the “sieve” and the smaller nuggets would get caught in the “riffles”.
These are some of the more advanced methods of placer mining. The “Long Tom” is basically a longer version of a “Rocker” or “Cradle” the “Long Tom” would be operated by a team were one person shovels the gravel or dirt and the other one picks out the bigger rocks. The only downside to the “Long Tom” is that it needs a continuous water source. To finally get the gold dust or nuggets the miners would pan the rocks in the “Long Tom”. After the “Long Tom” came the “Sluice box”. Basically a “Sluice box” is an extended version of the “Long Tom”. Hydraulic mining involves a high powered stream of water at the side of a mountain with gravel deposits so the gravel and rocks fall down to a set of giant “Sluice boxes”.
Hard rock mining involves one to extract the gold straight from the quartz that embeds it. this is usually done by using dynamite to blast the quartz from the rock, then the quartz is crushed to obtain the ore, then the gold would be separated from the ore, and finally refined into a more usable material. The most difficult part of this process is the separation of the gold from the ore the most successful method was using cyanide. These last two paragraphs explained what tools were used to find gold but also to destroy the lands of California. It may be beautiful today but it was more beautiful before the Gold Rush.
These are two of the simplest methods of placer mining. Panning was the first form of placer gold mining in which you would put gravel containing gold and water in a small pan and swirl the gravel and water in the pan until the gold settles at the bottom. An upgraded version of panning would be using a “Rocker” or “Cradle”. This tool would have a box with a “sieve” and an incline at a downward angle with “riffles” at the bottom it would be mounted on rocker of a rocking chair usually. What would happen is you would put gravel and water in the top and then rock the “Rocker” back and forth and the bigger rocks and gold nuggets would get caught in the “sieve” and the smaller nuggets would get caught in the “riffles”.
These are some of the more advanced methods of placer mining. The “Long Tom” is basically a longer version of a “Rocker” or “Cradle” the “Long Tom” would be operated by a team were one person shovels the gravel or dirt and the other one picks out the bigger rocks. The only downside to the “Long Tom” is that it needs a continuous water source. To finally get the gold dust or nuggets the miners would pan the rocks in the “Long Tom”. After the “Long Tom” came the “Sluice box”. Basically a “Sluice box” is an extended version of the “Long Tom”. Hydraulic mining involves a high powered stream of water at the side of a mountain with gravel deposits so the gravel and rocks fall down to a set of giant “Sluice boxes”.
Hard rock mining involves one to extract the gold straight from the quartz that embeds it. this is usually done by using dynamite to blast the quartz from the rock, then the quartz is crushed to obtain the ore, then the gold would be separated from the ore, and finally refined into a more usable material. The most difficult part of this process is the separation of the gold from the ore the most successful method was using cyanide. These last two paragraphs explained what tools were used to find gold but also to destroy the lands of California. It may be beautiful today but it was more beautiful before the Gold Rush.
Chance V.
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