On 27th July, Dr. Carl H. Lamborg, Assistant Professor from University of California, Santa Cruz gave an academic lecture on "Glacial/Interglacial Changes in the Mercury Cycle: Submarine Volcanism and Climate".
Dr. Lamborg first pointed out that the climate changes in the glacial/interglacial periods exhibit a “sawtooth-like” temperature record. It is might be caused by the volcanic activities which released large amounts of carbon dioxide and then affected the coeval climate change. Meanwhile, volcanic eruption released large amounts of mercury as well. Thus, we can monitormercury cycles during the glacial/interglacial periods to assess the role of volcanic eruption in driving climate changes.
By constructing a box model of the global mercury cycle, Dr. Carl cautioned that in addition to terrestrial volcanism, submarine volcanic activity is also an important factor affecting the global mercury cycle. During the glacial period, a large amount of seawater was frozen into the ice sheet, which significantly reduced the sea levels and water pressure on the seabed, thereby increasing the submarine volcanic activities and magma releases. The Antarcticice core showed low mercury during glacial periods and high mercury during interglacial periods, likely reflecting enhanced mercury released by the seafloor hydrothermal fluids in interglacial Southern Ocean.
