Negative pH values in an open-air radical environment affected by acid mine drainage. Characterization and proposal of a hydrogeochemical model
Publicated to:Science Of The Total Environment. 644 1244-1253 - 2018-12-10 644(), DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.381
Authors: Sarmiento, Aguasanta M.; Antonio Grande, Jose; Luis, Ana T.; Miguel Davila, Jose; Carlos Fortes, Juan; Santisteban, Maria; Curiel, Jesus; Luisa de la Torre, Maria; Ferreira da Silva, Eduardo;
Affiliations
Abstract
This paper presents the finding of a singular environment polluted by acid mine drainage in the Iberian Pyrite Belt. This situation is regulated by particular conditions, thus the analysed values can be considered as extreme, not only because of the high concentrations of toxic elements, but also due to the extreme low pH, reaching an average negative pH of - 1.56, never found before in open-air environments contaminated by acid mine drainage. Concentrations up to 59 g/L of Fe, 2.4 g/L of Al, 740 mg/L of As, 4.3 mg/L of Co, 5.3 mg/L of Ge, 4.8 mg/L of Sb, inter alia, can be found dissolved in these polluted waters. The main aims of the present work are the physicochemical characterization and the toxicity assessment of these radical polluted waters. In addition, a hydrogeochemical model of the system will be proposed, which justifies the extreme pH value and the extraordinarily high concentrations of toxic elements, even for acid mine drainage polluted environments. Extreme acidity and metal and sulphate concentrations in the Radical Environment are due to several processes of different nature, mainly driven by the geochemistry of the minerals presents in the endorheic character of the basin. The extremely acidic nature of these waters control the Fe species present in them, being FeHSO4+ the mainly Fe specie representing 94% of total. High toxicity of these waters has been detected due to the absence of any diatoms species. (c) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All Xrights reserved.
Keywords
Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal Science Of The Total Environment due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2018, it was in position 27/251, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Environmental Sciences.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 3.45, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-09, the following number of citations:
- WoS: 20
- Scopus: 35
Impact and social visibility
Leadership analysis of institutional authors
This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Portugal.