Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
A mineralogical archive of the biogeochemical sulfur cycle preserved in the subsurface of the Río Tinto system
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, Space Technology.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2409-7444
Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX), Department of Earth Sciences, University of Western Ontario.
ESCET-Área de Geología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.
Institute for Planetary Materials, Okayama University, Misasa.
Show others and affiliations
2018 (English)In: American Mineralogist, ISSN 0003-004X, E-ISSN 1945-3027, Vol. 103, no 3, p. 394-411Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The search for extinct and extant life on Mars is based on the study of biosignatures that could be preserved under Mars-like, extreme conditions that are replicated in different terrestrial analog environments. The mineral record in the subsurface of the Río Tinto system is one example of a Mars analog site that has been exposed to weathering conditions, including the biogeochemical activity of Fe and S chemolithotrophic bacteria, for millions of years. The SEM-EDAX analysis of different samples recovered in the Peña de Hierro area from four boreholes, ranging from 166 to 610 m in depth, has provided the identification of microbial structures that have affected a suite of hydrothermal minerals (~345 Ma) as well as minerals likely produced by biological activity in more recent times (<7 Ma). The hydrothermal minerals correspond to reduced sulfur or sulfate-bearing compounds (e.g., pyrite and barite) that are covered by bacilli- or filamentous-like microbial structures and/or secondary ferrous carbonates (e.g., siderite) with laminar to spherical structures. The secondary iron carbonates can be in direct contact or above an empty interphase with the primary hydrothermal minerals following a wavy to bent contact. Such an empty interphase is usually filled with nanoscale, straight filamentous structures that have a carbonaceous composition. The occurrence of a sulfur and iron chemolithotrophic community in the Río Tinto basement strongly suggests that the association between sulfur-bearing minerals, dissolution scars and secondary minerals of biological origin is a complex process involving the microbial attack on mineral surfaces by sulfur reducing bacteria followed by the precipitation of iron-rich carbonates. In this scenario, iron sulfide compounds such as pyrite would act as electron donors under microbial oxidation, while sulfate minerals such as barite would act as electron acceptors through sulfate reduction. Furthermore, the formation of siderite would have resulted from carbonate biomineralization of iron chemoheterotrophic organims or other microorganisms that concentrate carbonate through metabolic pathways. Although the distribution of the mineral biosignatures at depth clearly follows a redox gradient, they show some irregular allocation underground, suggesting that the geochemical conditions governing the microbial activity are affected by local changes associated with the fracturing pattern of the Río Tinto basement. The abundance of sulfur- and iron-bearing minerals in the Mars crust suggests that the Río Tinto mineral biosignatures can be useful in the search for extant and extinct subsurface life on the red planet

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Walter de Gruyter, 2018. Vol. 103, no 3, p. 394-411
National Category
Aerospace Engineering
Research subject
Atmospheric science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-67860DOI: 10.2138/am-2018-6288ISI: 000431121100007Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85043297619OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-67860DiVA, id: diva2:1187983
Note

Validerad;2018;Nivå 2;2018-03-06 (andbra)

Available from: 2018-03-06 Created: 2018-03-06 Last updated: 2018-05-17Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Fernández-Remolar, David
By organisation
Space Technology
In the same journal
American Mineralogist
Aerospace Engineering

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 1421 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf