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How does volcanic mercury impact the environment? A time-integrated analysis of mercury dispersion and accumulation in plants, insects, and soils at Mt Etna (Italy)

Alexandra Grace Lang  1, Grace Elizabeth Cantele 1, Carly Daniel 1, Sarah C. Jantzi 2, Xiaoyu Xu 3, Dogancan Yasar 4, Paul A. Schroeder 1, Kamal Gandhi 5, Brittany Frances Barnes 5, Caterina Villari 5, Nicole Bobrowski 6, Rosa Anna Corsaro 6, Aaron Thompson 7, Alexander Cherkinsky 2, Avishek Dutta 1, Srimanti Duttagupta 1, Mattia Pistone 1

  • Affiliations: 1 Department of Geology, University of Georgia 2 Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia 3 Savannah Research Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia 4 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Florida 5 Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia 6 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia 7 Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia

  • Presentation type: Poster

  • Presentation time: Monday 16:30 - 18:30, Room Poster Hall

  • Poster Board Number: 21

  • Programme No: 6.6.9

  • Theme 6 > Session 6

Abstract

Active volcanoes emit metals such as mercury with potentially negative/harmful impacts on the health of communities living in proximity. Our work aimed to determine: a) the level of accumulation and distribution of mercury in the environment close to the emission source (up to 13 km), and b) its temporal storage in bioaccumulators. We have investigated the nature of mercury at the end of 2020--2022 eruptive activity and prior to the new eruptive cycle starting on July 4th, 2024 of Mt Etna (Italy), which is the largest volcano in Europe with >1M people living in its shadow, and one of the greatest emitters of mercury in the world. We conducted laboratory analysis of total mercury and methylmercury concentrations in chestnut leaves, insects (ladybugs and ground beetles), and soils (from tephra-devoid surface down to ~20-cm depth), which are putative prime accumulators of mercury in the environment, at elevations ranging from 720 to 2867 m a.s.l. and at distances from the Southeast Crater volcanic vent ranging from 0.9 to 12.5 km away. Our data showed that mercury accumulated most in the first ~5 cm-deep soil (2 to 36 ng/g) and in ground beetles (10 to 156 ng/g, which is 2 to 60 times higher than that of ladybugs). Their main distribution follows the eastward / southeastward dispersion of gas and tephra from paroxysms at Mt Etna. We plan to correlate mercury accumulation and dispersion with soil mineralogy, organic concentration, eruption intensity and quiescence.