PROJETO MERCANTAR 2015-16: Day 1

João Canário
Deception Island

The main goal of the MercAntar project is to understand the mercury dynamics in Deception Island's waters.

The volcanic is the main source of inorganic mercury (Hg) as previous works showed that there are favourable conditions in Port Fosters Bay to transform the inorganic Hg into organic mercury the most toxic species.

So, our work is to use the stable mercury isotopes technique to quantify this process.

In the first day we sampled water and sediments in five locations on shore (Fumarolas, Baleeiros, Morature, Colatina and Pendulo) and incubate the samples with Hg stable isotopes. Also near the main channel of the bay we collect 10L of water to determine Hg isotope fractionation, a possible fingerprint for Hg in these waters. Further work was then done at lab in Gabriel de Castilla Station.

This project is a collaborative work between the University of Lisbon and the University of Trent in Canada with the support of the Portuguese and Spanish Polar Programs.