Environmental Mineralogy and Bio-Geochemistry of Arsenic

669 Pages·2014·159.51 MB·English

by  Alpers

REVIEWS in MINERALOGY
and GEOCHEMISTRY
Volume 79 2015
Arsenic
Environmental Geochemistry,
Mineralogy, and Microbiology
EDITORS
Robert J. Bowell
SRK Consulting, Cardiff, United Kingdom
Charles N. Alpers
USGS, California, U.S.A.
Heather E. Jamieson
Queen's University, Ontario, Canada
D. Kirk Nordstrom
USGS, Colorado, U.S.A.
Juraj Majzlan
Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat, Jena, Germany
Front Cover: Mimetite, 17-23 Floors, 9th Level, Jersey Vein, Bunker Hill Mine, Kellogg,
Idaho, U.S.A. Field of view 3 cm. Crystal drawing of mimetite crystal structure.
Back Cover: (top left) Erythrite crystals, Bou Azer District, Tazenakht, Ouarzazate Province,
Souss-Massa-Draâ Region, Morocco. Field of view 2 cm. (top right) Arthurite, scorodite and
pharmacosiderite, 150 level Copper Stope, Majuba Mine, Pershing County, Nevada, U.S.A.
Field of view 1.2 cm. (bottom left) Shultenite (white) in matrix of Cuprian adamite (emerald
green) and olivenite (dark green) nest of crystals in tennantite matrix, Tsumeb Mine, Tsumeb,
Otjikoto region, Namibia. Field of view 2.5 cm (bottom right) Liroconite, Wheal Gorland, St
Day, Cornwall, United Kingdom. Field of view 3 cm.
Series Editor: Jodi J. Rosso
MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY of AMERICA
GEOCHEMICAL SOCIETY
Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Volume 79
Arsenic: Environmental Geochemistry,
Mineralogy, and Microbiology
ISSN 1529-6466
ISBN 978-0-939950-94-2
Copyright 2015
The MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY of AMERICA
3635 Concorde Parkway, Suite 500
Chantilly, Virginia, 20151-1125, U.S.A.
www.degruyter.com
The appearance of the code at the bottom of the first page of each chapter in this volume
indicates the copyright owner’s consent that copies of the article can be made for personal
use or internal use or for the personal use or internal use of specific clients, provided
the original publication is cited. The consent is given on the condition, however, that
the copier pay the stated per-copy fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. for
copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. This
consent does not extend to other types of copying for general distribution, for advertising
or promotional purposes, for creating new collective works, or for resale. For permission
to reprint entire articles in these cases and the like, consult the Administrator of the
Mineralogical Society of America as to the royalty due to the Society.
Arsenic

Environmental Geochemistry,
Mineralogy, and Microbiology
79 Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 79
FROM THE SERIES EDITOR
This volume, edited by Rob Bowell, Charlie Alpers, Heather Jamieson, Kirk
Nordstrom, and Juro Majzlan, presents a comprehensive review of the topics covered
at the “Environmental Geochemistry, Mineralogy, and Microbiology of Arsenic” short
course that followed the 24th Annual V.M. Goldschmidt Conference and held at the
Miners Foundry, Nevada City, CA (June 15-16, 2014). This project has been a labor of
love for the organizers. Changing short-course venues, changing chapter authorship,
and other unexpected obstacles, challenged the organizers and threatened to undermine
the completion of this volume. It may have taken several years to bring to fulfillment,
but Rob and the other editors overcame the obstacles and successfully compiled the
volume that you are now reading.
L. Frank Baum, in The Marvelous Land of Oz, wrote “Everything has to come to
an end, sometime.” With the completion of this volume, I will be stepping down from
my position as the Series Editor of RiMG. It has been a wonderful experience to shep-
herd this series and work with the Mineralogical Society of America, the Geochemical
Society, and so many editors and authors over the past 14 years. Thank you!
All supplemental materials associated with this volume can be found at the MSA
website. Errata will be posted there as well.
Jodi J. Rosso, Series Editor
Richland, Washington
August 2014
PREFACE
“Put this in any liquid thing you will
And drink it off; and, if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.”
Apothecary. Act V Scene 1 (Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare)
Arsenic is perhaps history’s favorite poison, often termed the “King of Poisons” and the
“Poison of Kings” and thought to be the demise of fiction’s most famous ill-fated lovers.
The toxic nature of arsenic has been known for millennia with the mineral realgar (AsS),
originally named “arsenikon” by Theophrastus in 300 B.C.E. meaning literally “potent.” For
centuries it has been used as rat poison and as an important component of bactericides and
wood preservatives. Arsenic is believed to be the cause of death to Napoleon Bonaparte who
1529-6466/14/0079-0000$00.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.2138/rmg.2014.79.0
Arsenic ‒ Preface
was exposed to wallpaper colored green from aceto-arsenite of copper (Aldersey-Williams
2011). The use of arsenic as a poison has been featured widely in literature, film, theatre,
and television. Its use as a pesticide made it well known in the nineteenth century and it was
exploited by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the Sherlock Holmes novel The Golden Pince-Nez
(Conan-Doyle 1903). The dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace is a prime example of arsenic in
popular culture, being first a play but becoming famous as a movie.
Arsenic has figured prominently not only in fiction but in historical crimes as well
(Kumar 2010). A high profile case of the mid-nineteenth century involved a hydrotherapist, Dr.
Thomas Smethurst, who was accused of using arsenic to poison a woman he had befriended
(Wharton 2010). Based on analytical evidence from a renowned toxicologist, Alfred Swaine
Taylor, a death sentence was imposed, however Taylor had to confess that his apparatus was
contaminated. The verdict was overturned after public opinion was voiced against it and a plea
for clemency was made to Queen Victoria.
In recent years, arsenic has been recognized as a widespread, low-level, natural ground-
water contaminant in many parts of the world, particularly in places such as West Bengal
and Bangladesh, where it has given rise to chronic human-health issues. Long-term exposure
to arsenic has been shown to cause skin lesions, blackfoot disease, and cancer of the skin,
bladder, and lungs, and is also associated with developmental effects, cardiovascular disease,
neurotoxicity, and diabetes (WHO 2012). Arsenate's toxicity is caused by its close chemical
similarities to phosphate; it uses a phosphate transport system to enter cells. Arsenic occurs
in many geological environments including sedimentary basins, and is particularly associated
with geothermal waters and hydrothermal ore deposits. It is often a useful indicator of prox-
imity to economic concentrations of metals such as gold, copper, and tin, where it occurs in
hydrothermally altered wall rocks surrounding the zones of economic mineralization. Arsenic
is commonly a persistent problem in metal mining and there has been significant effort to man-
age and treat mine waste to mitigate its environmental impacts.
This volume compiles and reviews current information on arsenic from a variety
of perspectives, including mineralogy, geochemistry, microbiology, toxicology, and
environmental engineering. The first chapter (Bowell et al. 2014) presents an overview of
arsenic geochemical cycles and is followed by a chapter on the paragenesis and crystal
chemistry of arsenic minerals (chapter 2; Majzlan et al. 2014). The next chapters deal with
an assessment of arsenic in natural waters (chapter 3; Campbell and Nordstrom 2014) and a
review of thermodynamics of arsenic species (chapter 4; Nordstrom et al. 2014). The next two
chapters deal with analytical measurement and assessment starting with measuring arsenic
speciation in solids using x-ray absorption spectroscopy (chapter 5; Foster and Kim 2014).
Chapter 6 (Leybourne and Johannesson 2014) presents a review on the measurement of
arsenic speciation in environmental media: sampling, preservation, and analysis. In chapter 7
(Amend et al. 2014) there is a review of microbial arsenic metabolism and reaction energetics.
This is followed by an overview of arsenic toxicity and human health issues (chapter 8;
Mitchell 2014) and an assessment of methods used to characterize arsenic bioavailability
and bioaccessibility (chapter 9; Basta and Jurasz 2014). This leads into chapter 10 (Craw
and Bowell 2014), which describes the characterization of arsenic in mine waste with some
examples from New Zealand, followed by a chapter on the management and treatment of
arsenic in mining environments (chapter 11; Bowell and Craw 2014). The final three chapters
are in-depth case studies of the geochemistry and mineralogy of legacy arsenic contamination
in different historical mining environments: the Giant gold mine in Canada (chapter 12;
Jamieson 2014), the Sierra Nevada Foothills gold belt of California (chapter 13; Alpers et
al. 2014), and finally, the hydrogeochemistry of arsenic in the Tsumeb polymetallic mine in
Namibia (chapter 14; Bowell 2014).
iv
Arsenic ‒ Preface Arsenic ‒ Preface
was exposed to wallpaper colored green from aceto-arsenite of copper (Aldersey-Williams We thank all the authors for their comprehensive and timely efforts and for their cooperation
2011). The use of arsenic as a poison has been featured widely in literature, film, theatre, with our requests for scheduling, consistency of format, and nomenclature. Special thanks are
and television. Its use as a pesticide made it well known in the nineteenth century and it was due to the numerous colleagues who provided peer reviews that substantially improved all
exploited by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the Sherlock Holmes novel The Golden Pince-Nez chapters. This volume would not have been possible without the wisdom and patience of the
(Conan-Doyle 1903). The dark comedy Arsenic and Old Lace is a prime example of arsenic in series editor, Dr. Jodi Rosso. Finally we thank our families for their support and understanding
popular culture, being first a play but becoming famous as a movie. during the last several months.
Arsenic has figured prominently not only in fiction but in historical crimes as well R.J. Bowell, SRK Consulting, Churchill House, Cardiff, U.K.
(Kumar 2010). A high profile case of the mid-nineteenth century involved a hydrotherapist, Dr. C.N. Alpers, U.S. Geological Survey, Sacramento, California, U.S.A.
Thomas Smethurst, who was accused of using arsenic to poison a woman he had befriended H.E. Jamieson, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
(Wharton 2010). Based on analytical evidence from a renowned toxicologist, Alfred Swaine D.K. Nordstrom, U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.
Taylor, a death sentence was imposed, however Taylor had to confess that his apparatus was J. Majzlan, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, Germany
contaminated. The verdict was overturned after public opinion was voiced against it and a plea
for clemency was made to Queen Victoria.
REFERENCES
In recent years, arsenic has been recognized as a widespread, low-level, natural ground-
Aldersey-Williams H (2011) Periodic Tales: The curious lives of the elements. Penguin Books, London 428 p
water contaminant in many parts of the world, particularly in places such as West Bengal
Alpers CN, Myers PA, Millsap D, Regnier TB (2014) Arsenic associated with historical gold mining in the
and Bangladesh, where it has given rise to chronic human-health issues. Long-term exposure
Sierra Nevada foothills: case study and field trip guide for Empire Mine State Historic Park, California.
to arsenic has been shown to cause skin lesions, blackfoot disease, and cancer of the skin, Rev Mineral Geochem 79:553-587
bladder, and lungs, and is also associated with developmental effects, cardiovascular disease, Amend JP, Saltikov C, Lu G-S, Hernandez J (2014) Microbial arsenic metabolism and reaction energetics. Rev
neurotoxicity, and diabetes (WHO 2012). Arsenate's toxicity is caused by its close chemical Mineral Geochem 79:391-433
Basta NT, Juhasz A (2014) Using in vivo bioavailability and/or in vitro gastrointestinal bioaccessibility testing
similarities to phosphate; it uses a phosphate transport system to enter cells. Arsenic occurs
to adjust human exposure to arsenic from soil ingestion. Rev Mineral Geochem 79:451-472
in many geological environments including sedimentary basins, and is particularly associated
Bowell RJ (2014) Hydrogeochemistry of the Tsumeb deposit: implications for arsenate mineral stability. Rev
with geothermal waters and hydrothermal ore deposits. It is often a useful indicator of prox- Mineral Geochem 79:589-627
imity to economic concentrations of metals such as gold, copper, and tin, where it occurs in Bowell RJ, Alpers CN, Jamieson HE, Nordstrom DK, Majzlan J (2014) The environmental geochemistry of
hydrothermally altered wall rocks surrounding the zones of economic mineralization. Arsenic arsenic: an overview. Rev Mineral Geochem 79:1-16
Bowell RJ, Craw D (2014) The management of arsenic in the mining industry. Rev Mineral Geochem 79:507-
is commonly a persistent problem in metal mining and there has been significant effort to man-
532
age and treat mine waste to mitigate its environmental impacts.
Campbell KM, Nordstrom DK (2014) Arsenic speciation and sorption in natural environments. Rev Mineral
This volume compiles and reviews current information on arsenic from a variety Geochem 79:185-216
Conan-Doyle A (1903) The adventure of the golden pince-nez. In: The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Strand
of perspectives, including mineralogy, geochemistry, microbiology, toxicology, and
Magazine, London. October 1903-December 1904:597-615.
environmental engineering. The first chapter (Bowell et al. 2014) presents an overview of Craw D, Bowell RJ (2014) The characterization of arsenic in mine waste. Rev Mineral Geochem 79:473-506
arsenic geochemical cycles and is followed by a chapter on the paragenesis and crystal Foster AL, Kim CS (2014) Arsenic speciation in solids using X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Rev Mineral
chemistry of arsenic minerals (chapter 2; Majzlan et al. 2014). The next chapters deal with Geochem 79:257-369
an assessment of arsenic in natural waters (chapter 3; Campbell and Nordstrom 2014) and a Jamieson HE (2014) The legacy of arsenic contamination from mining and processing refractory gold ore at
Giant Mine, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Rev Mineral Geochem 79:533-551
review of thermodynamics of arsenic species (chapter 4; Nordstrom et al. 2014). The next two
Kumar NSA (2010) The science of Sherlock Holmes. Science Reporter, March 2010, 8-14 http://nopr.niscair.
chapters deal with analytical measurement and assessment starting with measuring arsenic res.in/bitstream/123456789/7512/1/SR%2047(3)%208-14.pdf
speciation in solids using x-ray absorption spectroscopy (chapter 5; Foster and Kim 2014). Leybourne MI, Johannesson KH, Asfaw A (2014) Measuring arsenic speciation in environmental media:
Chapter 6 (Leybourne and Johannesson 2014) presents a review on the measurement of sampling, preservation, and analysis. Rev Mineral Geochem 79:371-390
arsenic speciation in environmental media: sampling, preservation, and analysis. In chapter 7 Majzlan J, Drahota P, Filippi M (2014) Parageneses and crystal chemistry of arsenic minerals. Rev Mineral
Geochem 79:17-184
(Amend et al. 2014) there is a review of microbial arsenic metabolism and reaction energetics.
Mitchell VL (2014) Health risks associated with chronic exposures to arsenic in the environment. Rev Mineral
This is followed by an overview of arsenic toxicity and human health issues (chapter 8; Geochem 79:435-449
Mitchell 2014) and an assessment of methods used to characterize arsenic bioavailability Nordstrom DK, Majzlan J, Königsberger E (2014) Thermodynamic properties for arsenic minerals and aqueous
and bioaccessibility (chapter 9; Basta and Jurasz 2014). This leads into chapter 10 (Craw species. Rev Mineral Geochem 79:217-255
and Bowell 2014), which describes the characterization of arsenic in mine waste with some Wharton JC (2010) The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain Was Poisoned at Home, Work, & Play, Oxford
University Press, 412 p
examples from New Zealand, followed by a chapter on the management and treatment of
WHO (2012) Arsenic. World Health Organization, Fact Sheet 372. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/
arsenic in mining environments (chapter 11; Bowell and Craw 2014). The final three chapters fs372/en/
are in-depth case studies of the geochemistry and mineralogy of legacy arsenic contamination
in different historical mining environments: the Giant gold mine in Canada (chapter 12;
Jamieson 2014), the Sierra Nevada Foothills gold belt of California (chapter 13; Alpers et
al. 2014), and finally, the hydrogeochemistry of arsenic in the Tsumeb polymetallic mine in
Namibia (chapter 14; Bowell 2014).
iv v

Arsenic

Environmental Geochemistry,
Mineralogy, and Microbiology
79 Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 79
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
The Environmental Geochemistry of Arsenic: An Overview
Robert J. Bowell, Charles N. Alpers, Heather E. Jamieson,
D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................1
ARSENIC TOXICITY IN DRINKING WATER ......................................................................2
ARSENIC MINERALOGY AND PRIMARY OCCURRENCE .............................................2
ARSENIC IN THE WEATHERING ENVIRONMENT ..........................................................4
Arsenic in secondary minerals and soils .......................................................................4
Arsenic in water .............................................................................................................4
ANTHROPOGENIC ARSENIC CONTAMINATION .............................................................7
ARSENIC IN THE BIOSPHERE .............................................................................................8
BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING OF ARSENIC ....................................................................9
SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................11
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................................12
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................13
2
Parageneses and Crystal Chemistry of Arsenic Minerals
Juraj Majzlan, Petr Drahota,
Michal Filippi
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................17
PARAGENESES OF MINERALS OF ARSENIC .................................................................18
Definitions ...................................................................................................................19
Magmatic-hydrothermal arsenic minerals ...................................................................20
Metamorphic-hydrothermal arsenic minerals..............................................................22
Arsenic minerals in hot springs and fumarolic gases ..................................................26
Arsenic minerals in coal ..............................................................................................26
Arsenic minerals as products of coal combustion .......................................................28
Arsenic minerals in soil and fluvial systems ...............................................................30
Arsenic minerals in mine wastes .................................................................................44
Arsenic minerals in underground spaces .....................................................................70
vii
Arsenic ‒ Table of Contents
CRYSTAL CHEMISTRY OF ARSENIC MINERALS ..........................................................78
Hierarchical organization of crystal structures ............................................................79
Crystal chemistry of arsenates .....................................................................................79
Crystal chemistry of arsenites and arsenites-arsenates ..............................................131
Uranyl arsenates and arsenate-arsenites ....................................................................144
Arsenates and arsenites with unknown structure .......................................................144
Arsenides, sulfarsenides, and sulfides with arsenic, including sulfosalts ..................147
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .....................................................................................................148
REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................150
APPENDIX 1: Index of arsenic minerals .............................................................................174
APPENDIX 2: Index of arsenic-bearing minerals ................................................................184
3
Arsenic Speciation and Sorption in Natural Environments
Kate M. Campbell, D. Kirk Nordstrom
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................185
AQUEOUS INORGANIC ARSENIC SPECIES ..................................................................186
Complexation ............................................................................................................186
Polymerization ..........................................................................................................189
ORGANIC ARSENIC COMPOUNDS AND
INTERACTIONS WITH ORGANIC MATTER .............................................................189
Organic arsenical compounds ...................................................................................189
Arsenic complexation and reaction with natural organic matter ..............................190
SURFACE COMPLEXATION AND COMPETITIVE SORPTION ...................................195
Characterization and chemistry of arsenic surface species ......................................197
Effect of competitively adsorbing ions .....................................................................198
Effect of mineral transformations on arsenic speciation and vice-versa ..................200
ARSENIC OXIDATION-REDUCTION REACTIONS
AND SPECIATION EFFECTS .......................................................................................201
Biogenic redox reactions of arsenic .........................................................................201
Abiotic redox reactions of arsenic ............................................................................201
ARSENIC SPECIATION CALCULATIONS FOR
SEVERAL NATURAL WATER COMPOSITIONS .......................................................204
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .....................................................................................................205
REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................210
viii
Arsenic ‒ Table of Contents Arsenic ‒ Table of Contents
CRYSTAL CHEMISTRY OF ARSENIC MINERALS ..........................................................78 4
Thermodynamic Properties for
Hierarchical organization of crystal structures ............................................................79
Crystal chemistry of arsenates .....................................................................................79 Arsenic Minerals and Aqueous Species
Crystal chemistry of arsenites and arsenites-arsenates ..............................................131
D. Kirk Nordstrom, Juraj Majzlan,
Uranyl arsenates and arsenate-arsenites ....................................................................144
Erich Königsberger
Arsenates and arsenites with unknown structure .......................................................144
Arsenides, sulfarsenides, and sulfides with arsenic, including sulfosalts ..................147
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................217
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .....................................................................................................148
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO
REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................150
INTERNALLY CONSISTENT DATA ............................................................................218
APPENDIX 1: Index of arsenic minerals .............................................................................174
FINDING AN ANCHOR FOR STANDARD STATE
APPENDIX 2: Index of arsenic-bearing minerals ................................................................184
PROPERTIES AT 298.15 K, 1 BAR ................................................................................219
Standard state thermodynamic properties of arsenolite, AsO (cubic) ....................219
2 3
Arsenolite solubility ..................................................................................................220
3
Arsenic Speciation and Sorption in Natural Environments Aqueous arsenite and arsenate species ......................................................................221
Standard state thermodynamic properties of claudetite, AsO (monoclinic) ..........223
Kate M. Campbell, D. Kirk Nordstrom 2 3
Hydrolysis constants for arsenous and arsenic acids .................................................224
SOLUBILITY EQUILIBRIA IN THE Fe(III)-As(V)-HO SYSTEM .................................228
2
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................185 Results and discussion ...............................................................................................230
AQUEOUS INORGANIC ARSENIC SPECIES ..................................................................186 A note on solubility constants ...................................................................................231
Complexation ............................................................................................................186 AQUEOUS METAL ARSENATE COMPLEXES ...............................................................233
Polymerization ..........................................................................................................189 SUMMARY OF THERMODYNAMIC DATA FOR ARSENATE MINERALS
ORGANIC ARSENIC COMPOUNDS AND AND RELATED PHASES ..............................................................................................233
INTERACTIONS WITH ORGANIC MATTER .............................................................189 Ca arsenates ...............................................................................................................237
Organic arsenical compounds ...................................................................................189 Ba arsenates ...............................................................................................................239
Arsenic complexation and reaction with natural organic matter ..............................190 Cu arsenates ...............................................................................................................239
SURFACE COMPLEXATION AND COMPETITIVE SORPTION ...................................195 Fe arsenates ...............................................................................................................239
Characterization and chemistry of arsenic surface species ......................................197 Mg arsenates ..............................................................................................................239
Effect of competitively adsorbing ions .....................................................................198 Pb arsenates ...............................................................................................................240
Effect of mineral transformations on arsenic speciation and vice-versa ..................200 Zn arsenates ...............................................................................................................240
ARSENIC OXIDATION-REDUCTION REACTIONS Arsenates with multiple cations.................................................................................240
AND SPECIATION EFFECTS .......................................................................................201 ARSENIDES AND SULFIDES ...........................................................................................245
Biogenic redox reactions of arsenic .........................................................................201 GASEOUS SPECIES............................................................................................................245
Abiotic redox reactions of arsenic ............................................................................201 CONCLUDING REMARKS ................................................................................................245
ARSENIC SPECIATION CALCULATIONS FOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .....................................................................................................249
SEVERAL NATURAL WATER COMPOSITIONS .......................................................204 REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................249
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .....................................................................................................205
REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................210
Color Plates CP1-CP16
viii ix