An earthquake turns water to gold in a matter of seconds, according to a new study published by the Nature Geoscience journal.

The study reveals a model presented by researches that whenever an earthquakes cause water in fault lines to vaporize, leaving a deposit of gold.

The journal reported water often lubricates the inside of faults, fractures and fault jogs, or cracks connecting main fault lines in the rock. The water carries gold, silica and carbon dioxide about six miles underneath the earth.

University of Queensland geophysicist and lead author Dion Weatherly said even the smallest earthquake can turn water into gold, however the gold amount left is very minimal since underground fluids only contain one part per million of the element.

There is an estimate that people have uncovered roughly 188,000 tons of gold from earth's crust. The World Gold Council stated that most of the easily-accessible deposits have been depleted throughout the globe.

"Given that small-magnitude earthquakes are exceptionally frequent in fault systems, this process may be the primary driver for the formation of economic gold deposits," Weatherly explained, according to LiveScience.com.

Weatherly added that "large quantities of gold may be deposited in only a few hundred thousand years."

University of Nevada geologist John Muntean commented the information is not new however the study did bring new light on the topic.

"This paper quantifies the amount of pressure drop and it ties it into gold solubility and why that pressure drop could drop out all of the gold in the hydrothermal fluid," Muntean said.