Tungsten Accumulation in Hot Spring Sediments Resulting from Preferred Sorption of Aqueous Polytungstates to Goethite

Abstract

Geothermal waters usually have elevated tungsten concentrations, making geothermal systems important sources of tungsten in the environment. To study the transport of tungsten in hot springs to hot spring sediment, which is one of the key processes for the release of geothermally derived tungsten to the surface environment, geochemical investigations of the hot springs and their corresponding sediments in Rehai (a representative hydrothermal area in southwestern China) and systematic laboratory experiments of tungstate and polytungstate adsorption onto typical iron-bearing minerals in hot spring sediments (i.e., pyrite and goethite) were conducted. The results demonstrate that considerable tungsten concentrations (i.e., not much less than 10 µg/L), formation of polytungstates under acidic conditions, and enrichment of iron oxide minerals represented by goethite are the prerequisites for extreme enrichment of tungsten in hot spring sediments (e.g., 991 µg/g in the ZZQ spring outflow channel). The absence of any of these conditions would weaken the immobilization of aqueous tungsten and result in higher mobility of tungsten in the hot springs and its further transport downstream, possibly polluting the other natural waters in and around Rehai that serve as local drinking water sources. This study provides an insight for identifying the key geochemical processes controlling the transport and fate of undesirable elements (in this case, tungsten) in geothermal systems.