Abstract
The weathering of rocks and minerals may involve physical, chemical or biological processes. In particular, as the work of Ehrlich1,2, Aristovska3, Webbley4 and their collaborators shows, biogenic weathering in cold and dry environments has generally been attributed to organic acid excretions from living microorganisms5,6. Here we report measurements of the etch rate of microfractures in amorphous and crystalline silicates exposed to either sterilized hot solutions or microcolonies of siderofungi. The biogenic corrosion of the fungi is much faster than that expected from organic-acid excretions alone, and is probably related to the synthesis of very efficient 'siderophores' (ferric-ion-specific ligands7) in the cell membranes, as have already been documented by cell physiologists8–11 in interpreting the fast transport of iron in cells. This process may act in the natural environment, to produce the differential weathering observed in cosmic spherules made of microscopic 'bars' of olivine and glass, found in terrestrial sediments. These results are relevant to problems ranging from the evolution of soils to the disposal of nuclear wastes.
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References
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Callot, G., Maurette, M., Pottier, L. et al. Biogenic etching of microfractures in amorphous and crystalline silicates. Nature 328, 147–149 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/328147a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/328147a0
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