Many elements, such as gold, are just sitting around about six miles below Earth's surface. When an earthquake occurs, water inside the fault vaporizes and mixes with silica to form gold. Unfortunately, it would take at least 100,000 years for this process to create any amount of gold worth mining.
The world's longest mountain range runs 40,389 miles around the world, and 90% of it is covered by ocean water. Called the Mid-Ocean Ridge, this underwater range was formed by magma rising to fill gaps that formed as Earth's plates shifted. Its mountains average a depth of 8,200 feet below the water's surface. In comparison, the longest chain of mountains on land is South America's Andes, which is a paltry 4,350 miles long.
