Estimation of mercury vapor flux from natural substrate in Nevada

The contribution of mercury to the atmosphere from natural sources is not well-quantified, particularly at the regional scale. This modeling study employed a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach to estimate mercury flux from substrate in Nevada, which lies within one of the global belts of geologic Hg enrichment. In situ mercury flux measurements were taken from a variety of substrate types with a wide range of mercury concentrations. This empirical data forms the basis of equations applied to a database of over 71,000 rock and soil samples used in scaling mercury flux for Nevada. The GIS was employed to spatially model estimated flux values according to sample type, geology, presence/absence of hydrothermal alteration, and meteorological conditions. The area average flux calculated for Nevada adjusted for meteorological conditions is 4.2 +/- 1.4 ng m-2 h-1, which corresponds to a approximately 29 kg daily emission of mercury. Areas of hydrothermal alteration emit 12.9 +/- 3.6 ng m-2 h-1, accounts for 22% of net mercury emissions yet represents only 7% of the area of Nevada. Unaltered geologic units have low fluxes (3.5 +/- 1.2 ng m-2 h-1) but, because of their large area, emit 78% of the total mercury.