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Common and rare iron, sulfur, and zinc minerals in technogenically contaminated hydromorphic soil from Southern Russia

Environmental Geochemistry and Health volume 42, pages 95–108 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Soils formed after the desiccation of Lake Atamanskoe, which has served as a reservoir for liquid industrial waste from the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky during a long time, were studied. These soils differ from zonal soils by a strong contamination with zinc and sulfur. Preliminary studies showed that Fe compounds fix a significant part of zinc. This requires to study S, Zn, and Fe minerals. In this work, Mössbauer spectroscopy was used for the identification of iron compounds and scanning electron microscopy was used for the microanalysis of these and other minerals. To facilitate the identification of Fe minerals, brown iron ocher was removed from a contaminated soil sample and analyzed. From electron microscopy and Mössbauer spectroscopy data, ocher contained hydrogoethite with a high content of sorption water and schwertmannite (a rare mineral, probably found in Russia for the first time). The chemical composition of this schwertmannite better corresponds to the Cashion–Murad model than to the Bigham model. Particles of partially oxidized magnetite and wustite enriched with zinc were revealed under electron microscope. Siderite with partial substitution of Fe2+ by Zn2+ was detected. Thus, contaminated hydromorphic soil contains both common minerals (illite, goethite, hematite, gypsum) and rare minerals (schwertmannite, Zn siderite, partially oxidized magnetite and wustite enriched with zinc).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, Project No. 5.948.2017/PCh, Russian Academy of Sciences, Project No. AAAA-A19-119011190176-7.

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Affiliations

  1. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, 119991

    Yuri N. Vodyanitskii & Denis A. Pankratov

  2. Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, 344006

    Tatiana M. Minkina & Stanislav P. Kubrin

  3. Southern Federal University, Southern Scientific Center of Russian Academy of Sciences, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, 344006

    Alexey G. Fedorenko

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  1. Yuri N. Vodyanitskii
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  2. Tatiana M. Minkina
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  4. Denis A. Pankratov
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Correspondence to Tatiana M. Minkina.

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Vodyanitskii, Y.N., Minkina, T.M., Kubrin, S.P. et al. Common and rare iron, sulfur, and zinc minerals in technogenically contaminated hydromorphic soil from Southern Russia. Environ Geochem Health 42, 95–108 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-019-00295-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-019-00295-6

Keywords

  • Illite
  • Goethite
  • Hematite
  • Gypsum
  • Schwertmannite
  • Zn siderite
  • Partially oxidized magnetite
  • Zn wustite
  • Scanning electron microscopy
  • Mössbauer spectroscopy