Mercury and bio-essential element concentrations measured in Antarctic seal hairs from a lake sediment core covering the past 2000 years. The dataset correlates mercury fluctuations with historical gold and silver mining activities using the Hg-amalgamation process. Data was collected by the organization SCIOPS from King George Island, West Antarctica, with a last update recorded in February 2002.
Use Cases
- Analyze the temporal correlation between the HgT concentration time-series in seal hairs and documented periods of ancient mining activity.
- Compare the HgT profile from the seal hair core with similar profiles from cores affected by seal excrement and penguin droppings from the same region.
- Investigate the relationship between atmospheric mercury and methyl-mercury production by studying the methyl-mercury form present in the seal hair archive.
- Use the Antarctic seal hair HgT record as a reference baseline for surface seawater mercury in the Southern Ocean to assess global mercury emission and deposition models over the past 2000 years.
Strengths
- Temporal coverage spans 2000 years, providing a long-term historical record.
- Data includes correlations with independent records from a peat bog in Southern Chile and other lake cores.
Limitations
- Sample size and specific row/column counts are unknown.
- Data is from a single geographic location (King George Island), limiting regional generalization.
- The dataset's last update was in 2002, making it temporally stale for contemporary analysis.
Provenance
- Source
- nasa_earthdata, organization SCIOPS
- Collection Method
- Chemical analysis of total mercury and bio-essential elements in seal hairs extracted from a lake sediment core.
- Time Range
- Past 2000 years
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- King George Island, West Antarctica