Abstract
MERCURY analysis1 of over 1,000 water samples from GEOSECS stations in the western Atlantic indicated extremely low mercury concentrations (2–40 ng 1−1) in much of the ocean between 15°N and 35°S, and identified a large core of water of relatively high concentration (80–400 ng 1−1) between 25°N and 50°N. These increased concentrations may result1 from the entrainment of Hg which diffuses from the active spreading centre of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, by Mediterranean water which flows over the ridge into the western basin of the Atlantic Ocean. Mercury concentrations are as high as 1,370 ng 1−1 at a depth of 2,435 m at GEOSECS station 27 (42°00′N, 41°59′W), (ref. 1).
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References
Robertson, D. E., Pacific Northwest Laboratory Annual Report for 1973 to the USA EC Division of Biomedical and Environmental Research, Part 2, Ecological Sciences (US Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, DC, 1974).
Bostrom, K., and Peterson, M. N. A., Mar. Geol., 7, 427 (1969).
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Nakagawa, R., J. chem. Soc. Japan, 1, 71 (1974).
Carr, R. A., Hoover, J. B., and Wilkniss, P. E., Deep Sea Res., 19, 747 (1972).
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CARR, R., JONES, M. & RUSS, E. Anomalous mercury in near-bottom water of a Mid-Atlantic Rift valley. Nature 251, 489–490 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/251489a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/251489a0
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