力拓河中含矿物质的水，西班牙里奥廷托矿区 Mineral-laden water in the Rio Tinto in Minas de Rio Tinto mining area, Huelva province, Andalusia, Spain (© David Santiago Garcia/Getty Images)

力拓河中含矿物质的水，西班牙里奥廷托矿区 Mineral-laden water in the Rio Tinto in Minas de Rio Tinto mining area, Huelva province, Andalusia, Spain (© David Santiago Garcia/Getty Images)

Reflecting on one of the world's strangest rivers

If you like your landscapes on the surreal side, then this weird and wonderful river in the Andalusia region of southwestern Spain should be to your liking. The Rio Tinto (Red River) gets its name from the reddish hue of its water, which contains high levels of iron and sulfur, making it very acidic. This unusual chemical makeup may or may not be a result of the area's long history of mining, which dates back at least 5,000 years. Ancient residents like the Tartessians and Romans dug for copper, silver, gold, as well as the mineral pyrite, commonly referred to as 'fool's gold.' Legend has it that Rio Tinto was the site of the fabled mines of King Solomon.

Because of its extreme acidity, the river and surrounding areas are not only colorful, but also quite different than any other in Spain, with a scarcity of normal plant life in and along the riverbeds. Only a thriving community of unusual microorganisms—classified as extremophiles—can survive the water's acidic mix, by feeding on the minerals alone. The strangeness of Rio Tinto's ecology has even attracted the attention of NASA, which studied the bacteria that have adapted to this highly acidic environment because the conditions resemble those on the surface of Mars.

回想世界上最奇怪的河流之一

如果你喜欢超现实主义的风景，那么这条位于西班牙西南部安达卢西亚地区的奇怪而奇妙的河流应该是你喜欢的。力拓（Rio Tinto，红河）因其水呈微红色而得名，水中含有大量的铁和硫，使其呈酸性。这种不寻常的化学成分可能是也可能不是该地区悠久的采矿历史的结果，至少可以追溯到5000年前。像鞑靼人和罗马人这样的古代居民挖掘铜、银、金，以及通常被称为“傻瓜金”的黄铁矿。传说力拓是传说中所罗门王的矿山所在地。

由于其极端的酸度，这条河及其周围地区不仅色彩丰富，而且与西班牙的任何其他地区都有很大的不同，河床内和沿岸缺乏正常的植物生活。只有被归类为极端微生物的不寻常微生物群落才能在水的酸性混合物中存活下来，仅以矿物质为食。力拓公司生态的奇特甚至引起了美国宇航局的注意，该局研究了适应这种高酸性环境的细菌，因为这种环境与火星表面的环境相似。