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Letter

Nature Geoscience 2, 505–508 (1 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/ngeo549

Atmospheric depletion of mercury over Antarctica during glacial periods

Petru Jitaru , Paolo Gabrielli , Alexandrine Marteel , John M. C. Plane , Fr|[eacute]|deric A. M. Planchon , Pierre-Alexis Gauchard , Christophe P. Ferrari , Claude F. Boutron , Freddy C. Adams , Sungmin Hong , Paolo Cescon & Carlo Barbante

Mercury is a globally dispersed toxic metal that affects even remote polar areas. During seasonal atmospheric mercury depletion events in polar areas, mercury is removed from the atmosphere and subsequently deposited in the surface snows.