Assessment of hydrological, geological, and biological parameters of a river basin impacted by old Hg mining in NW Spain.

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic metal that can cause adverse effects for the health of ecosystems. The Caudal River is one of the main rivers in the Asturias region (NW Spain), whose basin is highly anthropized, hosting several Hg mines, closed in the last century. Arsenic (As) is also found in the mineral paragenesis of the Hg deposits, posing a greater environmental risk. In the mining sites, remaining old facilities and tailings continue to release these elements into the environment. In this work, samples of fluvial sediments and water were taken, both in areas affected by anthropic activity and in pristine areas, in order to establish the background levels for the critical elements. The mineralogical study of the sediments, combined with EDS microanalysis, is useful to identify mineralogical traps such as Fe oxides or clays to retain the As. The As content in all sampled sediments is above the threshold effect levels (TEL), the possible effect range within which adverse effects occasionally occur, according to the Canadian Sediment Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life. This fact is related to a naturally high geochemical background in the basin, due to the existing mineral deposits. The PEL threshold (the probable effect range within which adverse effects frequently occur) is exceeded by more than an order of magnitude in the sediments downstream of the Hg mines. In these points, the As content in the water, exceeding 700 µg L-1 As, is also above the quality standard established in Spanish legislation. As a result, the Caudal River tributaries in the lower part of the basin do not reach a good ecological state, according to the Hydrological Planning Office, and in some cases their state is deficient, showing low richness and high dominance of macroinvertebrates. Although the concentrations decrease with distance from the source, these findings justify the low ecological quality of the affected watercourses.

LZS-1, Lanzarote (Canary Island, Spain) lunar (Apollo 14) basaltic soil simulant.

The search for Terrestrial Analogues is essential for the development of future permanent or semi-permanent lunar bases. Terrestrial Analogues are zones where it is possible to probe not only scientific instruments, but also other astronaut capabilities in an environment that is similar to the geological context, geomorphology, mineralogy, geochemistry, etc. that we can find on Mars, the Moon and even asteroids. This work has focused on a multi-analytical characterization of Peñas de Tao geosite basalts in Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain). This characterization starts from a field campaign in which 3000 g of basalt rocks were selected. Subsequently, they were analysed by different techniques to determine their composition at a mineralogical and geochemical level, and the results were compared with data from other lunar simulants and from the Apollo 14 mission. After that, a set of petrophysical tests was carried out in order to determine its physical properties and evaluate its capacity as an analogous material for use in situ as a resource for further geological and astrobiological (future lunar habitability) essays.