The environmental impacts of one of the largest tailing dam failures worldwide.

The impacts of the SAMARCO iron tailing spill along more than 650 km, between the dam and the plume of the Doce River in the Atlantic, were assessed by the determination of toxic metals. The tailing spill caused a substantial increase in suspended sediment loads (up to 33,000 mg L), in addition to large depositions of waste along the Doce basin. The highest estimated transport of dissolved metals was observed for Fe (58.