TY - JOUR
T1 - Large mercury release from the Greenland Ice Sheet invalidated
AU - Jørgensen, Christian Juncher
AU - Søndergaard, Jens
AU - Larsen, Martin Mørk
AU - Kjeldsen, Kristian Kjellerup
AU - Rosa, Diogo
AU - Sapper, Sarah Elise
AU - Heimbürger-Boavida, Lars Eric
AU - Kohler, Stephen G.
AU - Wang, Feiyue
AU - Gao, Zhiyuan
AU - Armstrong, Debbie
AU - Albers, Christian Nyrop
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2024 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).
PY - 2024/1/26
Y1 - 2024/1/26
N2 - The major input of mercury (Hg) to the Arctic is normally ascribed to long-range transport of anthropogenic Hg emissions. Recently, alarming concentrations of Hg in meltwater from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) were reported with bedrock as the proposed source. Reported Hg concentrations were 100 to 1000 times higher than in known freshwater systems of Greenland, calling for independent validation of the extraordinary concentrations and conclusions. Here, we present measurements of Hg at 21 glacial outlets in West Greenland showing that extreme Hg concentrations cannot be reproduced. In contrast, we find that meltwater from below the GrIS is very low in Hg, has minor implications for the global Hg budget, and pose only a very limited risk for local communities and the natural environment of Greenland.
AB - The major input of mercury (Hg) to the Arctic is normally ascribed to long-range transport of anthropogenic Hg emissions. Recently, alarming concentrations of Hg in meltwater from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) were reported with bedrock as the proposed source. Reported Hg concentrations were 100 to 1000 times higher than in known freshwater systems of Greenland, calling for independent validation of the extraordinary concentrations and conclusions. Here, we present measurements of Hg at 21 glacial outlets in West Greenland showing that extreme Hg concentrations cannot be reproduced. In contrast, we find that meltwater from below the GrIS is very low in Hg, has minor implications for the global Hg budget, and pose only a very limited risk for local communities and the natural environment of Greenland.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85183592292&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.adi7760
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.adi7760
M3 - Article
C2 - 38277451
AN - SCOPUS:85183592292
SN - 2375-2548
VL - 10
JO - Science advances
JF - Science advances
IS - 4
M1 - eadi7760
ER -