Data from: Accelerate low water corrosion: the microbial sulphur cycle in microcosm

Accelerated low water corrosion is a form of marine steel corrosion caused
by bacterial activity. It has a global spread and is potentially
responsible for billions of pounds of damage. We have determined in detail
both the chemistry of corrosion products and the associated microbiology
at a UK site. The corrosion products form a layered structure with iron
sulphides at the steel surface and iron oxides and sulphates in contact
with water. The iron sulphides are formed by reaction of steel with
hydrogen sulphide formed by sulphate reducing bacteria and are oxidised
through a series of sulphur oxidation states by sulphide oxidising
bacteria, forming acid at all stages and encompassing the whole of the
bacterial sulphur cycle. The bacteria involved are endemic in anoxic bed
sediment, and the process is a response to the presence of steel as an
electron donor, and the generation of anoxic microenvironments within
corrosion products.