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Mercury in Lake Sediments: a Possible Indicator of Technological Growth

Abstract

GOLDBERG1 has estimated that at present man is responsible for about half of the total Hg released into the environment, and pollutant Hg has already been found in snow and ice2 and near-shore marine sediments3. It seemed to us that lake sediments, which geologically have a relatively rapid rate of deposition, might produce further evidence of man's input of Hg to the environment. This has been shown to occur in sediments from a Canadian lake which receives industrial waste4. Our sediments are from an English lake in a predominantly rural area.

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ASTON, S., BRUTY, D., CHESTER, R. et al. Mercury in Lake Sediments: a Possible Indicator of Technological Growth. Nature 241, 450–451 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/241450a0

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