RIO TINTO (RIVER)

The 'Río Tinto' is a river in southwestern Spain, in the Sierra Morena mountains of Andalusia. It flows generally south-southwest, reaching the Gulf of Cádiz at Huelva. The Río Tinto, or ''Red River'' in English, is notable for being very acidic, and has a deep reddish hue due to the iron dissolved in the water. The acid mine drainage from the mines causes this effect and leads to severe environmental problems due to the heavy metal concentrations in the river.^[1][2]

Contents

History

Astrobiology

References

Further reading

External links

History

The ore body was deposited in the Carboniferous (300-350 Ma) by hydrothermal activities on the sea floor.
The river area has a history of mining activity since the Tartessans and the Iberians started mining 3000 b.c. The mining continued over the Phoenician era and the Romans until the Moors in the second part of the 15th century: primarily for copper but also some iron and manganese. In the nineteenth century the mining operation started in large scale mainly by mining companies from the United Kingdom. After the peak of production in 1930 production declined and ended for copper mining in 1986 and for silver and gold mining in 1996.^[3]

Astrobiology

This river has gained recent scientific interest due to the presence of extremophile aerobic bacteria that dwell in the water. These life forms are considered the likely cause of the high acid content of the water. The subsurface rocks on the river bed contain iron and sulfide minerals on which the bacteria feed.^[4][5]
The extreme conditions in the river may be analogous to other locations in the solar system thought to contain liquid water, such as subterranean Mars. NASA scientists have also directly compared the chemistry of the water in which the rocks of Meridiani Planum were deposited in the past with the Río Tinto.[1] Likewise Jupiter's moon Europa is theorized to contain an acidic ocean of water underneath its ice surface. Thus the river is of interest to astrobiologists.
Based partially on research done near the Río Tinto river, two NASA scientists reported in February 2005 that they had found strong evidence of present life on Mars (Berger, 2005). NASA officials denied the scientists' claims shortly after they were released, however, and one of the scientists, Carol Stoker, backed off from her initial assertions (spacetoday.net, 2005).

References

1. A 120 yr record of widespread contamination from mining of the Iberian pyrite belt, Alexander van Geen, J. F. Adkins, E. A. Boyle, C. H. Nelson, and Albert Palanques, , , Geology, 1997
2. Acid mine tailings in southern Spain, A. van Geen, R. Takesue, Z. Chase, , , The Science of the Total Environment, 1999
3. Rio Tinto estuary (Spain): 5000 years of pollution, R.A. Davis Jr., A. T. Welty, J. Borrego, J. A. Morales, J. G. Pendon, J. G. Ryan, , , Environmental Geology, 2000
4. The Rio Tinto basin, Spain: Mineralogy, sedimentary geobiology, and implications for interpretation of outcrop rocks at Meridiani Planum, Mars, Fernandez-Remolar DC, Morris RV, Gruener JE, Amils R, Knoll AH, , , Earth and Planetary Science Letters y, 2005

5. Geological record of an acidic environment driven by iron hydrochemistry: The Tinto River system, Fernandez-Remolar DC, Rodriguez N, Gomez F, Amils R, , , Journal OF Geophysical Research-Planets, 2003

Further reading

★ Berger, Brian (2005). Exclusive: NASA Researchers Claim Evidence of Present Life on Mars. Posted Feb. 16, 2005.

★ spacetoday.net (2005). NASA denies Mars life reports. Posted Feb 19, 2005.

External links

★ Mars Analog Research and Technology Experiment FAQ