Guizhou Province is known as a heavily Hg-polluted area in China due to its special geochemical background and complicated Hg emission sources.In this study,we investigated the Hg isotope compositions of surface soil samples in the Hg mining area,zinc smelting area,coal combustion area,which are known to be the typical pollution regions of Hg in this province.We also compared the Hg isotopic fingerprints of primary Hg sources,such as hydrothermal Hg-bearing ores,coals and atmospheric Hg samples.According to our study,Hg stored in surface soils in different pollution regions in Guizhou Province displays a wide range of both mass dependent fractionation(MDF,δ202Hg) and mass independent fractionation(MIF,△199Hg).δ 202 Hg varies by 2.0‰ and △199Hg varies by 0.25‰ in the investigated surface soils.This study demonstrated that using a "MDF-MIF" two dimensional Hg isotope system could be particularly useful in discriminating Hg sources in soils.
High-precision 210Pb dating technology was applied to a peat core with a time span of about 150 years that was taken from Hongyuan, Sichuan Province, China. The concentrations of total mercury (Hg) and stable isotope compositions of mercury in the peat core were measured using a LUMEX 915 instrument and multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, respectively. Total mercury (Hg) concentrations in the peat core had a clearly increasing trend from the bottom to top of the core while δ 202Hg values (relative to NIST 3133) of peat had a decreasing trend. The total mercury (Hg) concentration varied from 16.7 to 101.3 ng/g and the δ 202Hg values ranged from –0.44‰± 0.14‰ to –1.45‰± 0.22‰. We clearly show that the study area experienced mercury pollution after the industrial revolution, and the mercury emitted from natural sources and anthropogenic sources had different Hg isotope signatures.
SHI WenFangFENG XinBinZHANG GanMING LiLiYIN RunShengZHAO ZhiQiWANG Jing
