ABSTRACT
Geology is the study of pressure and time. Under pressure all mountains yield, wasting their mass into the sea. Mostly this takes a very long time, but on occasion big things happen fast. In 1979, on a property in the state of Pará, Brazil, a child found a six-gram gold nugget. By the end of the week 1,000 peasant miners rushed the property. Within five weeks there were 10,000. At its peak 100,000 miners worked the deposit. Industrial mining projects can move a mountain in around 10–20 years. The garimpeiros of Brazil managed to move Serra Pelada, the ‘bald mountain’ within about five. 1 Even the powerless can move mountains when they are powered by hope.
