'Permafrost has accumulated so much mercury that it could dwarf the amount in the oceans, soils, atmosphere and biosphere combined,' researcher Josh West said.
The melting of permafrost in the Arctic could result in toxic mercury leaching into the waters of Alaskan rivers, putting millions of people at risk.This 'giant mercury bomb' lurks within the soils of permafrost in Alaska, which is slowly melting and being washed away by rivers such as the Yukon River, according to a new paper in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Previous research sampled mercury levels in permafrost by taking core samples from the upper 10 feet of the soil, but these studies found huge variation and didn't sample across all depths.In the new research, the scientists analyzed mercury in riverbank sediments, measuring deeper into the soil.'The river can quickly mobilize large amounts of sediment containing mercury,' co-author Isabel Smith, a Ph.D. candidate at USC Dornsife, said in the statement.
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