Determination of Mercury Content in a Shallow Firn Core from Greenland by Isotope Dilution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The total mercury content was determined in 6 cm sections of a shallow 7 m firn core and in surrounding surface snow from Summit, Greenland (elevation: 3238 m, 72.58∘N, 38.53∘W) collected in May 2001 by isotope dilution cold-vapor inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ID-CV-ICP-MS). The focus of this research was to evaluate the capability of the ID-CV-ICP-MS technique for measuring trace levels of Hg typical of polar snow and firn. Highly enriched ²⁰¹Hg isotopic spike is added to approximately 10 mL melted core and thoroughly mixed. The Hg²⁺ in the sample is reduced on line with tin(II) chloride (SnCl₂) and the elemental Hg (Hg∘) vapor pre-concentrated onto gold gauze using a commercial amalgam system. The Hg is then thermally desorbed and introduced into a quadrupole ICP-MS. The blank-corrected Hg concentrations determined for all samples ranged from 0.25 to 1.74 ng/L (ppt) (average 0.59 ± 0.28 ng/L (1σ)) and fall within the range of those previously determined by Boutron et al. [Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 1998, 3315–3318] (≤ 0.05–2.0 ng/L) for the Summit site. The average blank value was 0.19 ± 0.045 ng/L (n = 6, 1σ) and the method detection limit was 0.14 ng/L. The Hg values specifically for the firn core range from 0.25 to 0.87 ng/L (average 0.51 ± 0.13 ng/L (1σ)) and show both values declining with time and larger variability in concentration in the top 1.8 m.