This geological cross-section illustrates how ancient river systems created bench gravels rich in placer potential.
Rounded quartz pebbles indicate prolonged fluvial transport and mechanical weathering, while hydraulic sorting concentrates dense minerals such as gold near the bedrock contact zone.
As erosion reactivates these paleochannels, modern streams rework and further enrich placer deposits downstream.
The interaction between past and present river dynamics demonstrates how landscape evolution controls mineral concentration.
This image was generated using AI as an educational visualization to support learning about placer deposit formation, sediment transport, and fluvial geomorphology.
#geology #earthscience #placergold #sedimentology #fluvialprocesses #mineralexploration #geomorphology #golddeposits #stemeducation #aiforeducation
