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A vast reservoir of mercury, trapped in permafrost for thousands of years, is being released as the ice thaws due to increasing global temperatures, a recent study warns.

How it is happening? Global Warming is the reason.

The Arctic, a focal point of climate crisis concerns, is warming four times faster than the global average. As temperatures rise, permafrost, frozen ground that covers much of the Arctic, is melting at unprecedented rates.

Permafrost acts like a natural freezer, preserving not just organic material but also dangerous substances like mercury. The permafrost in the Arctic has accumulated the metal over thousands of years, absorbed by plants that die, decompose and become part of the frozen ground.

As this permafrost thaws, mercury is released into the environment.

The Yukon River, which flows through Alaska towards the Bering Sea, plays a crucial role in this process. It erodes the permafrost along its banks, carrying sediment laden with mercury downstream. This sediment, containing potentially dangerous levels of the toxic metal, is then deposited along the river's path.

How much mercury is there?

 

“Mercury doesn’t just accumulate by chance,” he explained. “The planet’s natural atmospheric circulation tends to move pollutants toward high latitudes, resulting in mercury build-up in the Arctic. Because of its unique chemical behavior, a lot of mercury pollution ends up here, where it has been trapped in the permafrost for millennia.”

This poses a significant risk to the five million people living in the Arctic zone, particularly the three million who live in areas where permafrost is expected to disappear entirely by 2050.

As mercury is released into the environment, it enters the food chain, where it accumulates in fish and game, staples of the traditional Arctic diet.

Why is mercury dangerous?

Mercury is a tricky element. It moves from the atmosphere to the ground, then to the water and back into the atmosphere. Because of the way the Earth’s natural atmospheric circulation works, pollutants like mercury tend to accumulate in the Arctic.

Once there, it becomes part of the ecosystem, cycling through plants, animals and soil.

The study found that finer-grained sediments in the Yukon contain more mercury than coarser grains. This suggests that certain types of soil may pose a greater risk, as they hold more mercury and are more easily eroded by the river.

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