Please join us on Wednesday, October 30, at 2 pm for a Geochemistry Seminar by Benjamin Geyman, a PhD Candidate in Environmental Science and Engineering at Harvard University.
Anthropogenic Impacts to the Global Mercury Cycle: Cumulative Releases and Long-Term Fate
Humans have mined and released large quantities of mercury from the Earth’s lithosphere over centuries. Despite regulatory efforts since the 1970s, including the 2017 Minamata Convention, mercury pollution remains a significant global concern. Evaluating the effectiveness of these policy actions and interpreting recent environmental trends requires reducing uncertainty in mercury emissions and developing improved modeling tools for attribution and analysis.
In this seminar, I will present recent advances in quantifying both natural and anthropogenic mercury sources and in modeling the timescales of mercury cycling and removal. First, I will explore how remote sensing can improve estimates of the magnitude and spatiotemporal distribution of volcanic mercury emissions. Next, I will discuss development of a global geochemical box model, which can be used to constrain historical emissions uncertainty when combined with observational data. Finally, I will present projections of future anthropogenic mercury emissions based on Shared Socioeconomic Pathways narratives and highlight the role of legacy emissions in shaping future trends. Timelines of recovery will depend on the interaction between intrinsic timescales of key Earth System processes and the pace of future emission reductions.