A review of Hg isotope geochemistry

Mercury isotope is recognized as a new geochemical tracer. In the past decade, with the rapid development of mass spectrometry, mercury isotope geochemistry has made remarkable progress, which can be embodied in the following two aspects: (1) Laboratory studies showed that numerous processes related to Hg biogeochemical cycling can cause significant mass-dependent fractionation of mercury isotopes, and the recent discovery of mass-independent fractionation of mercury isotopes allows new constraints to identify specific process (e.g., photochemical reduction) during mercury geochemical cycling; (2) Observation of natural samples showed large variations of mercury isotopic composition (up to 10‰ for both δ202Hg and Δ199Hg values) on the Earth, and mercury isotopes have been successfully used to track the sources and geochemical pathways of Hg in the environment, and in the future, it is also expected to get more extensive applications in a number of fields, including atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry. ©, 2015, Chinese Academy of Forestry. All right reserved.