Greenland's Melting Glaciers Are Polluting Coasts With Shocking Amounts of Mercury 25 MAY 2021 Greenland's melting ice sheet is unleashing an astonishing amount of mercury into the nation's 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 among the worst in recorded history. In fact, researchers say the concentrations here are only matched by the polluted waterways of Industrial China, which overall produces about one-third of the world's mercury pollution.