Study warns: Arctic warming threatens to trigger toxic “mercury bomb”

Researchers from the University of Southern California's Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences found in the new study that the Arctic is “warming four times faster than the global average, destabilizing permafrost that has been frozen for two or more years and covers large parts of the Arctic.”

Mercury (Hg) deposits in the region's permafrost have “accumulated over thousands of years,” the study authors say, “and the mercury content in the top meter of Arctic soils may exceed the total amount stored in the atmosphere, ocean, and all other soils.”

Josh West, professor of geosciences and environmental studies at USC Dornsife and co-author of the study, said in a statement that “there could be a giant mercury bomb lurking in the Arctic just waiting to explode.”

The study notes that “a number of processes” can contribute to the release of mercury from permafrost, including river bank erosion.

“The rivers rebury a significant amount of the mercury,” West said. “To truly assess the threat the mercury poses, we need to understand both the erosion and burial processes.”

Isabel Smith, a doctoral student at USC Dornsife and another co-author of the study, warned that “decades of exposure” to the toxic element, “especially with increasing concentrations due to the release of more mercury, could result in enormous damage to the environment and the health of people in these areas.”

The study was published as parts of the Arctic experienced what The Washington PostIan Livingston described the temperatures as “exceptionally high – 30 to 40 degrees above normal.”

“And this is happening as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just announced that July was the 14th consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures,” Livingston wrote earlier this week. “Last week, temperatures in Norman Wells, Canada, just 90 miles south of the Arctic Circle, soared to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Locations in Alaska recorded numerous record highs.”

“Off the coast of Greenland, Longyearbyen in Norway, the world's northernmost city with a sizable population, experienced its warmest August day with a high of nearly 70 degrees,” he added.