Timeline for How did the conquistadors imagine the "lake of gold" to be like?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 4, 2019 at 18:01 | comment | added | NothingToSeeHere | I believe it's more likely that there was a lake that frequently caught the light in such a way as to have a golden appearance. By happenstance, the lake was in a gold producing area. Remember, translating from Aztec to Spanish was probably imprecise when dealing with abstracts. | |
| Nov 2, 2019 at 19:17 | comment | added | Pieter Geerkens | It's rare for a stream to run strong long and far enough to reach a lake before slowing - and panning a lake is much harder than panning a fast-flowing stream. But the physics is the same as for any other dispersion. | |
| Nov 2, 2019 at 19:00 | comment | added | Mark Olson | @PieterGeerkens True, but the placer gold deposits I've heard of were all in streams, not in lakes. But it's certainly plausible. | |
| Nov 2, 2019 at 17:10 | comment | added | Pieter Geerkens | Placer gold is often fine enough to be carried by the current of a mountain stream, but much if not all will drop to the bottom anytime that current slows - such as upon entering a lake. | |
| Nov 2, 2019 at 13:24 | history | answered | Mark Olson | CC BY-SA 4.0 |