-Terra rossa samples were taken from the B horizons of soil profiles and from cracks within limestone in Italy. The average annual temperature (AAT) of the sites ranged from 8.4 to 20.3~ and the average annual precipitation (AAP) from 511 to 3113 mm, with either a 5-6 month water deficit or a large water surplus. Goethite and hematite were identified in all the samples. Under a moist (> 1700 mm...

ÐShewanella putrefaciens CN32 reduces Fe(III) within two illites which have different properties: the Fithian bulk fraction and the <0.2 mm fraction of Muloorina. The Fithian illite contained 4.6% (w/w) total Fe, 81% of which was Fe(III). It was dominated by illite with some jarosite (~32% of the total Fe(III)) and goethite (11% of the total Fe(III)). The Muloorina illite was pure and contained...

Chemolithoautotrophy based on reduced inorganic minerals is considered a primitive energy transduction system. Evidence that a high number of meteorites crashed into the planet during the early period of Earth history led us to test the ability of iron-oxidizing bacteria to grow using iron meteorites as their source of energy. Here we report the growth of two acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria...

Recent work has indicated that iron (oxyhydr-)oxides are capable of structurally incorporating and releasing metals and nutrients as a result of Fe2+-induced iron oxide recrystallization. In the present paper, we briefly review the current literature examining the mechanisms by which iron oxides recrystallize and summarize how recrystallization affects metal incorporation and release. We also p...

Low-temperature synthesis experiments on ferric oxide–water systems have resulted in disparate oxygen isotope fractionation–temperature (a-T) curves. In this study, recent ferric oxides, mostly goethites of Holocene age, were collected and analyzed from a variety of modern soil, stream, and marine environments, where formation temperature and the oxygen isotopic composition (dO) of the water fr...

Apatites are a diverse class of phosphate minerals that are important in a great variety of natural and industrial processes. They are, for example, used as raw material in fertiliser production and in the remediation of metal-contaminated soils. Hydroxyapatite Ca5(PO4)3OH, (HAP) and fluorapatite Ca5(PO4)3F, (FAP) are similar to the biological apatite that is the main constituent of mammalian b...

Electron transfer from zerovalent iron (Fe0) to targeted contaminants is affected by initial Fe0 composition, the oxides formed during corrosion, and surrounding electrolytes. We previously observed enhanced metolachlor destruction by Fe0 when iron or aluminum salts were present in the aqueous matrix and Eh/pH conditions favored formation of green rusts. To understand these enhanced destruction...

The Eocene Huber Formation, exposed in the CFI Hall mine south of Irwinton, in Wilkinson County, Georgia, displays colored zones that are a consequence of an oxidative weathering front. These zones vary from very light gray (gray) to pinkish white (pink) to very pale yellow (cream) (Munsell N8, 5YR 8/2 and 2.5Y 8/2, respectively) with increasing degree of oxidation. A representative sample from...