As Arctic Thaws, New Evidence of Looming ‘Mercury Bomb’

Scientists have found new evidence that melting Arctic permafrost could unleash large sums of mercury, a dangerous toxin.

Read the whole story in Yale Environment 360.

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.

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