Tinto River
From Freepedia
Image:Rio tinto river CarolStoker NASA Ames Research Center.jpg Tinto river, or Río Tinto, is a river in southwestern Spain, in the Sierra Morena mountains of Andalusia. It flows generally south-southwest, reaching the Gulf of Cádiz at Huelva. The Río Tinto, or Red River in English, is notable for being very acidic, and has a deep reddish hue due to the iron dissolved in the water. The river area has a history of mining activity since the Phoenician era; primarily copper but also some iron and manganese.
This river has gained recent scientific interest due to the presence of extremophile aerobic bacteria that dwell in the water. These life forms are considered the likely cause of the high acid content of the water. The subsurface rocks on the river bed contain iron and sulfide minerals on which the bacteria feed.
The extreme conditions in the river may be analogous to other locations in the solar system thought to contain liquid water, such as subterranean Mars. Likewise Jupiter's moon Europa is theorized to contain an acidic ocean of water underneath its ice surface. Thus the river is of interest to astrobiologists.
Legend holds that this river was the location of King Solomon's mines.
