# mercury in the tundra

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-the-tundra/808656>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 12, 2018, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-the-tundra/808656 "2018-02-12T00:35:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-the-tundra/808656/1 "2018-02-12T00:35:37Z")

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No, not about being cold.

[This article](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-arctic-permafrost-holds-a-crazy-amount-of-mercury-mdash-and-thats-bad-news/) says that the arctic permafrost contains insanely high levels of mercury. On the order of two-thirds the total free mercury on the earth’s surface.

This could be bad. Currently, all that mercury is locked up in the ice. If the permafrost thaws too much, a lot of that will enter the global mercury stream. It is not clear how much of an increase our global ecosystems can tolerate.

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**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-the-tundra/808656/2 "2018-02-12T06:22:47Z")

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This could be really quite bad.

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**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-the-tundra/808656/3 "2018-02-12T06:35:37Z")

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Can’t all the fancy schmancy scientists figure a way to contain it?

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**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-the-tundra/808656/4 "2018-02-12T14:39:06Z")

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Naw; they’re all too busy generating fake news about climate warming don’t 'cha know.

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**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-the-tundra/808656/5 "2018-02-12T15:44:42Z")

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is it elemental mercury, or organic compounds like methyl/dimethylmercury?

while you definitely don’t want metallic mercury running amok, the organic compounds are _seriously bad news._

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**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-the-tundra/808656/6 "2018-02-12T17:36:43Z")

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[WaPo says](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/12/the-arctic-is-full-of-mercury-and-scientists-think-they-know-how-its-getting-there/?utm_term=.37dd04e243cd) that a lot of it is atmospheric uptake by plants during the brief growing season. Since it is in the soil, I am guessing it is cast off by metabolic processes, so it is probably more elemental than in compounds. The article suggests that the source is pollution, i.e., caused by humans. ISTR burning coal puts a lot of mercury into the air.

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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mercury-in-the-tundra/808656/7 "2018-02-12T17:55:01Z")

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> [@eschereal](#):
>
> …  
> The article suggests that the source is pollution, i.e., caused by humans. ISTR burning coal puts a lot of mercury into the air.

From the article:

> [@](#):
>
> The 50- to 100-centimeter cores spanned a time between 22,000 and 2,400 years ago, meaning the vast majority of mercury they hold came from nonhuman sources.