The aim of this study is to investigate the mineralogical and chemical processes which take place during the bioweathering of an enstatite chondrite by bacteria. Synthetic enstatite chondrites were made in laboratory in order to begin this complex study with simplified and well-defined materials. These analogs were shown to contain the major phases of enstatite chondrites: enstatite, Si-rich kamacite, troilite and unusual sulfides such as oldhamite or niningerite. First, the Raman study of this analog allowed to identify and understand the specific Raman signal of sulphides present in enstatite meteorites. The Raman signal of these phases is explained by infrared activation due to a symmetry modification in the crystal lattice. Then, in order to better understand the aqueous alteration of enstatite chondrites, each major phase and olivine were separately submitted to aqueous and aerobic alteration with or without Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans at pH ¡Ö 2 ¨¤ T = 20¡ãC. All experiments were characterized before and after alteration using scanning electron microscopy. Regular measurements og the chemistry of the aqueous medium were used to study the kinetics of leaching experiments of bio-alteration and compared to thermodynamic and kinetic modeling with JChess. Our results show that contrary to the observations on the separate phases, the dissolution kinetics are very different when the whole phases are associated in the enstatite chondrite analogue: troilite dissolves more slowly than in experiments on separate phases while enstatite dissolves faster. The slower dissolution of troilite is ascribed to the presence of oldhamite and niningerite in the starting material. These observations will be useful to understand and model the evolution of enstatite chondrites at the surface of the Earth and, beyond that, of reduced assemblages containing metals, sulphides and silicates. Enstatite chondrites are shown to be an appropriate substrate for the two bacterial strains which have shown biological activity, especially by the formation of biofilms and which have accelerated the dissolution kinetics
