Scientists have found new evidence that melting Arctic permafrost could unleash large sums of mercury, a dangerous toxin.
Scientists have found new evidence that melting Arctic permafrost could unleash large sums of mercury, a dangerous toxin.
Scientists estimate that the amount of mercury in the atmosphere has grown sevenfold over the last 500 years, primarily from burning coal. Air currents are carrying airborne mercury toward the Arctic, where it is absorbed by plants, which then deposit the toxin in the soil. Over centuries, mercury has built up in the frozen ground, such that today, Arctic permafrost may hold more mercury than the atmosphere, the oceans, and every living organism combined. As the region warms, melting permafrost could liberate this buried mercury.
“There could be this giant mercury bomb in the Arctic waiting to explode,” said Josh West, an environmental scientist at the University of Southern California and coauthor of the new study.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
McIntyre Creek joins the Yukon River in northern Canada. (Photo Credit: Keith Williams via Flickr)
