Bog iron

Ore deposit

Acid, iron-bearing groundwater seeps into bogs and swamps; at the surface the iron oxidises, helped by iron bacteria, and builds up nodules and crusts of goethite and limonite that can be dug with a spade and smelted with simple tools.

Where

Bog / Swamp

Rocks

Limonite

Minerals

Goethite, Magnetite, Quartz, Vivianite

Metals

Iron

Worked

Before the industrial age

Examples

Most iron of the Viking Age, smelted in Scandinavia; L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, about 1021; European smelting from the Pre-Roman Iron Age

Sources

• Bog iron. Wikipedia.

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