Jon Hawkings News Today

It’s no help having essential elements in the Earth’s crust if they can’t get to the organisms that need them.

New research shows that concentrations of the toxic element mercury in rivers and fjords connected to the Greenland Ice Sheet are comparable to rivers in

New research shows that concentrations of the toxic element mercury in rivers and fjords connected to the Greenland Ice Sheet are comparable to rivers in industrial China, an unexpected finding that is raising questions about the effects of glacial melting in an area that is a major exporter of seafood.

About ten percent of the global riverine export of this toxic substance to oceans originates from this region - with potentially significant impacts on Arctic organisms

As if rising sea levels weren't already enough of a threat...

As if rising sea levels weren't already enough of a threat...

Some of Greenland’s glacial meltwaters are unusually high in mercury concentrations, according to a new study published in Nature Geoscience.

  New research from Florida State University shows that concentrations of the toxic element mercury in rivers and fjords connected to the Greenland Ice Sheet are comparable to rivers in industrial China. Credit: Jade Hatton/University of Bristol. Read Time: New research shows that concentrations of the toxic element mercury in rivers and fjords connected to the Greenland Ice Sheet are comparable to rivers in industrial China, an unexpected finding that is raising questions about the effects ...

Greenlands Melting Glaciers Are Polluting Coasts With Shocking Amounts of Mercury 25 MAY 2021 Greenlands melting ice sheet is unleashing an astonishing amount of mercury into the nations rivers and fjords. Downstream of three glaciers in the southwest, researchers have found coastal ecosystems are swimming in high concentrations of the heavy metal, which can build up in the food web to toxic levels.   The quantity of mercury observed in three glacial rivers and three fjords in Greenland was ...

As if the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet wasn’t already a big enough problem, new research has found that the troubled mass of ice is also pumping out water that’s surprisingly rich in the toxic metal mercury. A few uncertainties surround the finding, but it does highlight how the unfolding climate crisis could impact the rest of the natural world and human life in a bunch of previously unforeseen ways.  The discovery first emerged when scientists sampled waters from three different r...