Volcano ‘pollution’ Solves Mercury Mystery (Science Daily)

Maybe this should be titled, "Possible Mercury Pollution Warning for Nicaragua!"

ScienceDaily (June 29, 2008) — Scientists from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have discovered how volatile metals from volcanoes end up in polar ice cores.

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Whilst researchers had suspected that mercury boils out of hot magma, the big surprise was just how much mercury escapes from volcanoes. Measurements made on just one part of the Masaya volcano in Nicaragua, by Dr Melanie Witt of Oxford University, have shown that about 7 tonnes of natural volcanic mercury escapes into the atmosphere from this vent each year.

'That one vent of one volcano can produce 7 tonnes of mercury a year is astounding,’ said Oxford’s Dr Melanie Witt, ‘that’s considerably more than total industrial emissions of mercury from the UK – recorded at about 5.5 tonnes in 2000. It confirms our suspicions that volcanoes are an important part of the global mercury cycle: what we need to understand next is where this mercury ends up and what effects it may have on the environment.’

For the complete article, go to: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080629081932.htm