Geothermal
waters often are enriched in trace metal(loid)s, such
as arsenic, antimony, molybdenum, and tungsten. The presence of sulfide
can lead to the formation of thiolated anions; however, their contributions
to total element concentrations typically remain unknown because nonsuitable
sample stabilization and chromatographic separation methods convert
them to oxyanions. Here, the concurrent widespread occurrence of thioarsenates,
thiomolybdates, thiotungstates, and thioantimonates, in sulfide-rich
hot springs from Yellowstone National Park and Iceland is shown. More
thiolation was generally observed at higher molar sulfide to metal(loid)
excess (Iceland > Yellowstone). Thioarsenates were the most prominent
and ubiquitous thiolated species, with trithioarsenate typically dominating
arsenic speciation. In some Icelandic hot springs, arsenic was nearly
quantitatively thiolated. Also, for molybdenum, thioanions dominated
over oxyanions in many Icelandic hot springs. For tungsten and antimony,
oxyanions typically dominated and thioanions were observed less frequently,
but still contributed up to a few tens of percent in some springs.
This order of relative abundance (thioarsenates > thiomolybdates
>
thiotungstates ≈ thioantimonates) was also observed when looking
at processes triggering transformation of thioanions such as mixing
with non-geothermal waters or H2S degassing and oxidation
with increasing distance from a discharge. Even though to different
extents, thiolation contributed substantially to speciation of all
four elements studied, indicating that their analysis is required
when studying geothermal systems.