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Mercury in the Global Ocean

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2014Environmentashley tucker, by product, carbon dioxide, carl lamborg, don rice, Environment, global ocean, handelsbilanz, hav safety, havs, industrial revolution, marine environment, mathieu joerger, mercury, phosphate, robotic cars, rosette, self driving car, slay, sven willner, us wirtschaft

Study shows three times more mercury in upper ocean since Industrial Revolution

Although the days of odd behavior among hat makers are a thing of the past, the dangers mercury poses to humans and the environment persist today.

Mercury is a naturally occurring element as well as a by-product of such distinctly human enterprises as burning coal and making cement. Estimates of “bioavailable” mercury—forms of the element that can be taken up by animals and humans—play an important role in everything from drafting an international treaty designed to protect humans and the environment from mercury emissions, to establishing public policies behind warnings about seafood consumption. (more…)

Ganymede May Harbor ‘Club Sandwich’ of Oceans and Ice

By Guest PostMay 6, 2014Scienceauf hoher frequenz, christophe sotin, galileo mission, ganymede, ice, icy moon, jupiter, laubfrosch, martin jansen, mercury, model, NASA, oceans, partnersuche, quaken, sea floor, solar system, values

The largest moon in our solar system, a companion to Jupiter named Ganymede, might have ice and oceans stacked up in several layers like a club sandwich, according to new NASA-funded research that models the moon’s makeup.

Previously, the moon was thought to harbor a thick ocean sandwiched between just two layers of ice, one on top and one on bottom. (more…)

Ancient volcanic explosions shed light on Mercury’s origins

By Guest PostApril 22, 2014Sciencebrown university, creativity in music, data, david william hearn, garrett weyenberg, mercury, messenger spacecraft, mount st helens, NASA, origin, rheinzufluss, sayo art, staffpad, tropische parasiten

Mercury was long thought to be lacking volatile compounds that cause explosive volcanism. That view started to change when the MESSENGER spacecraft returned pictures of pyroclastic deposits — the telltale signature of volcanic explosions. Now more detailed data from MESSENGER shows that volcanoes exploded on Mercury for a substantial portion of the planet’s history. The findings suggest Mercury not only had volatiles but held on to them for longer than scientists had expected.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The surface of Mercury crackled with volcanic explosions for extended periods of the planet’s history, according to a new analysis led by researchers at Brown University. The findings are surprising considering Mercury wasn’t supposed to have explosive volcanism in the first place, and they could have implications for understanding how Mercury formed. (more…)

New Research Shows Elevated Mercury from in-Ground Wastewater Disposal

By Guest PostMarch 15, 2014Environmentanoxic, biogeochemist, carl lamborg, chemical changes, denitrification, doug kent, east falmouth, elevated mercury, green pond, hg, human health, local groundwater, massachusetts military reservation, mercury, mmhg, monomethylmercury, organic matter, plume, toxic levels, toxic trace metal, waste eating microbes, wastewater disposal, whoi

As towns across Cape Cod struggle with problems stemming from septic systems, a recent study by a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientist focuses on one specific toxic by-product: mercury. In a study of local groundwater, biogeochemist Carl Lamborg found microbial action on wastewater transforms it into more mobile, more toxic forms of the element.

His findings were published in Environmental Science and Technology in November 2013. (more…)

From Mercury to Morocco, and onward to Yale: a meteorite’s tale

By Guest PostNovember 27, 2013Scienceanthony j irving, asteroid, chromium, comet, csi solar system, derek briggs, earth, Germany, greenish space rock, magnesium, mars, mercury, meteor, meteorite, moroccan desert, morocco, natural history, northwest africa, nwa 7325, peabody museum, planetary meteorites, solar system, Space, stefan ralew, university of washington, yale

Talk about a precious stone — the largest piece of the only known meteorite from the planet Mercury has found its way to Yale, where it is now on display at the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Known as NWA 7325, the fist-size, greenish space rock is a rarity among rarities: there just aren’t many verified planetary meteorites. Scientists know of about 70 from Mars and, until now, none from any of the other planets in Earth’s solar system. There are about 180 known meteorites from the moon. NWA 7325 is the first believed to be from Mercury. (more…)

Mercury levels in Pacific fish likely to rise in coming decades

By Guest PostSeptember 4, 2013Environmentatmospheric problem, bacteria, bioaccumulation, China, coal burning, fish, India, isotopic fractionation, isotopic measurement technique, joel blum, lantern fish, mercury, mercury emission reductions, mercury pollution, methylmercury, moonfish, north pacific ocean, ocean surface, opah, open ocean fish, organic matter, pacific ocean, photochemical degradation, power plants, rainfall, source, toxic form, toxin, university of hawaii, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — University of Michigan researchers and their University of Hawaii colleagues say they’ve solved the longstanding mystery of how mercury gets into open-ocean fish, and their findings suggest that levels of the toxin in Pacific Ocean fish will likely rise in coming decades.

Using isotopic measurement techniques developed at U-M, the researchers determined that up to 80 percent of the toxic form of mercury, called methylmercury, found in the tissues of deep-feeding North Pacific Ocean fish is produced deep in the ocean, most likely by bacteria clinging to sinking bits of organic matter. (more…)

NASA Releases Images of Earth by Distant Spacecraft

By Guest PostJuly 24, 2013Sciencecarolyn porco, cassini images earth, cassini spacecraft, columbia university, coming of age, distant spacecraft, images of earth, linda spilker, mercury, messenger, moon, NASA, nasa interplanetary spacecraft, photo of earth, planetary explorers, saturns rings, sean solomon, wide angle image

PASADENA, Calif. — Color and black-and-white images of Earth taken by two NASA interplanetary spacecraft on July 19 show our planet and its moon as bright beacons from millions of miles away in space.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured the color images of Earth and the moon from its perch in the Saturn system nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) away. MESSENGER, the first probe to orbit Mercury, took a black-and-white image from a distance of 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) as part of a campaign to search for natural satellites of the planet. (more…)

Hazy days of summer: Southeast U.S. field work measures mercury, smog

By Guest PostJuly 16, 2013Environmentair quality, ben lee, birmingham, c 130, central pennsylvania, claudia mohr, clean sea air, climate, coal fired, colored aerosols, dan jaffe, eastern texas, felipe lopez hilfiker, field work, ground-level ozone, gulf of mexico, hazy days, Houston, joel thornton, lyatt jaegle, measure, mercury, military transport plane, nashville, natural vegetation emission, ohio river valley, pollutants, power plant, smog, southeast us, summer, university of washington, vegetation particles, very exciting data

Dozens of atmospheric scientists, including three University of Washington faculty members, are taking part in what’s being described as one of the largest atmospheric field campaigns in decades.

The six-week Southeast Atmosphere Study, through July 15, includes scientists from more than 30 different institutions. Together they are studying how pollutants combine with natural vegetation emissions to affect climate and air quality in the Southeastern U.S. (more…)

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