Mercury fluxes from hydrothermal venting at mid-ocean ridges constrained by measurements

Abstract

The UNEP Minamata Convention on Mercury aims to reduce human exposure to toxic mercury through the reduction of anthropogenic emissions. We are primarily exposed via the consumption of fish that bioaccumulate mercury from the ocean. The current paradigm is that anthropogenic mercury emissions (present-day 3,100 tons per year) have increased the global oceanic mercury reservoir by 21%. This estimate is flawed because we do not know how much natural mercury resided in the ocean before anthropogenic emissions started. We are similarly unable to quantify how anthropogenic emissions have affected fish mercury levels. Hydrothermal venting is the only direct source of natural mercury to the ocean. Previous studies, based on vent fluid measurements alone, suggested that hydrothermal mercury inputs could range from 20 and 2,000 tons per year. We use observations of vent fluids, plume, sea water and rock cores from the Trans-Atlantic Geotraverse (TAG) hydrothermal vent at the Mid-Atlantic ridge aquired during three dedicated oceanographic cruises. The combined observations suggest that the majority (67–95%) of the mercury enriched in the vent fluids (4,966 ± 497 picomoles per litre) is diluted into sea water  to reach background seawater levels (0.80 picomoles per litre) and a small fraction is scavenged locally (2.6–10%). An extrapolation of our results suggests that the global hydrothermal mercury flux from mid ocean ridges is small (1.5 - 65 tons per year) compared to anthropogenic mercury missions. While this suggests that most of the mercury present in the ocean is of anthropogenic origin, it also gives hope that the strict implementation emission reductions in the framework of the Minamata Convention could effectively reduce fish mercury levels and human exposure. Torres-Rodriguez, N., Yuan, J., Petersen, S., Dufour, A., González-Santana, D., Chavagnac, V., Planquette, H., Horvat, M., Amouroux, D., Cathalot, C., Pelleter, E., Sun, R., Sonke, J. E., Luther, G. W., and Heimbürger-Boavida, L.E.: Mercury fluxes from hydrothermal venting at mid-ocean ridges constrained by measurements, Nat. Geosci., 1–7, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01341-w, 2023.