The California gold rush during the 1840’s caused hundreds of thousands of people to engage in mass migration. After any gold laying upon the surface had been excavated, miners dug into the ground to continue in their search. Miners surveyed for quartz veins as quartz virtually always meant that gold was nearby. Most gold sinks into the Earth’s core with other heavy metals like iron but occasionally, some gold remains with lighter minerals like quartz which is why gold can often be found imbedded inside of quartz. The reason gold nestles in with quartz is because earthquakes cause natural fissures to occur which provide pathways for superheated water containing minerals. This mineral packed water then cools down and the minerals carried within the flooded cracks left from the fissures, crystallize