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Chapter Title Rio Tinto

Copyright Year 2014
Copyright Holder Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Corresponding Author Family Name Fernández-Remolar
Particle
Given Name David
Given Name C.
Suffix
Division/Department Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC)
Organization/University INTA
Street Ctra Ajalvir km 4
City Torrejón de Ardoz
Postcode 28850
Country Spain
Email fernandezrd@inta.es
Keywords Extreme environment - Fluvial system - Mars analog
(separated by “-”)
 Encyclopedia of Astrobiology
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1379-2
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

1 Rio Tinto
2 David C. Fernández-Remolar*
3 Centro de Astrobiología (INTA-CSIC), INTA, Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain

4 Keywords
5 Extreme environment; Fluvial system; Mars analog

6 Synonyms
7 Río Tinto acidic system; Río Tinto Mars analog

8 Definition
9 The Río Tinto ▶ extreme environment is a 100-km-long acidic fluvial system emplaced in the Iberian
10 Pyritic Belt (IPB) (Fernández-Remolar et al. 2005). Mines of copper, silver, and gold have been exploited
11 for over 3,000 years. The fluvial system is composed of two acidic streams sourced in Peña de Hierro and
12 Cerro Colorado areas, respectively. Its peculiar geochemistry is maintained by different low-pH springs
13 sourced on a ▶ pyrite ore body aquifer which is affected by microbial-driven ▶ weathering. The Río Tinto
14 springs are connected to the aquifer by a diverse set of normal faults which recharge the subsurface with
15 rainwater and oxygen. In this system, the acidic springs result from the acidic subsurface waters which
16 outflow through the same group of faults. Microbial life displays a great diversity in eukaryotic living
17 forms and a versatile metabolism in the prokaryotic microbes (Aguilera et al. 2007; González-Toril
18 et al. 2003) despite the extreme conditions based on a low pH and high metal concentration.
19 The outstanding mineralogy of the fluvial Río Tinto system is similar to the mineral association found
20 in the ▶ Meridiani Mars region (Fernández-Remolar et al. 2005; Squyres and Knoll 2005). For this
21 reason, Río Tinto has been considered as a valuable terrestrial analog of Mars for inferring geochemical
22 conditions involved in the production of iron-rich Mars mineralogies.

23 Overview
24 The acidic environment of Río Tinto in Southern Spain (Fig. 1) is the result of the chemolithotrophic
25 activity on pyrite ores outcropping in one segment of the IPB over the last 7 million of years (Fernández-
26 Remolar et al. 2005). The microbial attack is produced in a two-stage process starting with sulfide
27 ▶ oxidation to SO42 and FeII and followed by oxidation of FeII to FeIII. In the multistage oxidation
28 process, water acidification is induced by the release of protons to subsurface solutions resulting in the
29 generation of acidic brines oversaturated in iron and sulfate. Interestingly, the oxidation of the sulfide ore
30 body is a complex process initiated by the decomposition of pyrite with ferric iron serving as the oxidizing
31 agent, which produces great quantities of FeII in solution. After that, FeII is oxidized with oxygen to FeIII
32 by iron oxidizers, which is newly available as oxidizing agent for pyrite through chemolithotrophic

*Email: fernandezrd@inta.es

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 Encyclopedia of Astrobiology
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1379-2
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Fig. 1 Río Tinto acidic system. Fluvial environment of Río Tinto showing red deposits enriched in oxides and sulfates
preserving environmental and biological information

Fig. 2 Río Tinto waters. Red color in water is a consequence of the high concentration in the FeIII cation maintained by a low
pH around 1–3; the riverbed sediments correspond to amorphous polymers of iron and sulfates which are the precursor of
goethite and hematite. The corrugated pattern in the river bottom sediment corresponds to coated streamers during the dry
season

33 metabolism. Under acidic conditions the ferric cation is very soluble and functions as a buffer that
34 maintains the pH between 1.5 and 3.5 (Gómez et al. 2004). Moreover, the microbial oxidation of pyrite is
35 an exothermal process that, under certain geological conditions, can result in heat accumulation in the
36 subsurface (Fernández-Remolar et al. 2008b). As a consequence, both pH and thermal control have been
37 considered as ecological mechanisms with homeostatic properties that could benefit microbial commu-
38 nities in surface and subsurface habitats (Gómez et al. 2004; Fernández-Remolar et al. 2008a) The surface
39 and subsurface areas of the Río Tinto system are greatly influenced by seasonal changes which control the
40 input of rainwater and oxygen to the system (Fernández-Remolar et al. 2003). During the wet season,
41 weathering of silicates, erosion in headwaters, and sedimentation in the fluvial are favored, whereas the
42 precipitation of sulfate assemblages is the main sedimentary process in the dry season (Figs. 2 and 3). As a
43 consequence, the sedimentary record in the surface environment alternates between detrital fine-grained
44 deposits, iron oxides, and sulfates. The Río Tinto underground is subjected to a pH and redox gradient
45 ranging from acidic aerobic in shallow areas to quasi-neutral anaerobic where ▶ methane and carbonates

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 Encyclopedia of Astrobiology
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1379-2
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Fig. 3 Precipitation of sulfates during the dry season. Evaporative precipitates inside water bodies (brown deposits) or
efflorescences through evaporative capillary pumping (yellow sulfates infilling mud cracks)

46 are formed (Fernández-Remolar et al. 2008b). The activity of the fluvial environment has been recorded
47 over the last 2 million of years in different terrace levels that have preserved valuable biological
48 information for the astrobiological exploration of Mars (Fernández-Remolar and Knoll 2008).

49 See Also
50 ▶ Acidophile
51 ▶ Extreme Environment
52 ▶ Homeostasis
53 ▶ Iron Cycle
Q1 54 ▶ Iron Oxyhydroxides
55 ▶ Mars
56 ▶ Meridiani (Mars)
57 ▶ Oxidation
58 ▶ Pyrite
59 ▶ Sulfate Minerals
60 ▶ Weathering

61 References and Further Reading

62 Aguilera A, Zettler E, Gómez F, Amaral-Zettler L, Rodríguez N, Amils R (2007) Distribution and
63 seasonal variability in the benthic eukaryotic community of Río Tinto (SW, Spain), an acidic, high
64 metal extreme environment. Syst Appl Microbiol 30:531–546
65 Fernández-Remolar DC, Knoll AH (2008) Fossilization potential of iron-bearing minerals in acidic
66 environments of Río Tinto, Spain: implications for Mars exploration. Icarus 194:72–85
67 Fernández-Remolar D, Rodríguez N, Gómez F, Amils R (2003) The geological record of an acidic
68 environment driven by iron hydrochemistry: the Tinto River system. J Geophys Res 108:5080–5095.
69 doi:10.1029/2002JE001918

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 Encyclopedia of Astrobiology
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1379-2
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

70 Fernández-Remolar DC, Morris RV, Gruener JE, Amils R, Knoll AH (2005) The Río Tinto Basin, Spain:
71 mineralogy, sedimentary geobiology, and implications for interpretation of outcrop rocks at Meridiani
72 Planum, Mars. Earth Planet Sci Lett 240:149–167
73 Fernández-Remolar DC, Gómez F, Prieto-Ballesteros O, Schelble RT, Rodríguez N, Amils R (2008a)
74 Some ecological mechanisms to generate habitability in planetary subsurface areas by
75 chemolithotrophic communities: the Río Tinto subsurface ecosystem as a model system. Astrobiology
76 8:157–173
77 Fernández-Remolar DC, Prieto-Ballesteros O, Rodríguez N, Gómez F, Amils R, Gómez-Elvira J, Stoker
78 CR (2008b) Underground habitats in the Río Tinto basin: a model for subsurface life habitats on Mars.
79 Astrobiology 8:1023–1047
80 Gómez F, Fernández-Remolar D, González-Toril EF, Amils R (2004) The Tinto River, an extreme Gaian
81 environment. In: Margulis L, Miller J, Boston P, Schneider S, Crist E (eds) Scientist on Gaia 2000. MIT
82 Press, Boston
83 González-Toril EF, Llobet-Brossa E, Casamayor EO, Amann R, Amils R (2003) Microbial ecology of an
84 extreme acidic environment, the Tinto River. Appl Environ Microbiol 69:4853–4865
85 Squyres SW, Knoll AH (2005) Sedimentary rocks at Meridiani planum: origin, diagenesis, and implica-
86 tions for life on Mars. Earth Planet Sci Lett 240:1–10

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Encyclopedia of Astrobiology
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1379-2
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Author Queries
Query Refs. Details required
Q1 The entry title “Iron Oxyhydroxides” does not match with contents. Please check.

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