FATE OF MERCURY IN THE ARCTIC Michael Evan ... - COGCI

Ariya et al. (11) have shown recently that reaction 4, the recombination reaction between Hg and
Br, is surprisingly fast, and so this is our prime candidate to initiate the oxidation of Hg 0 . However,
the analogous reaction of atomic I may also be important, following observations of active iodine
oxide chemistry in the mid- and low-latitude marine boundary layer (16, 17). Bauer et al. (18)
have recently reported that the reaction Hg + OH is very slow, although two previous studies
obtained rate coefficients for this reaction that varied by 2 orders of magnitude. We will therefore
investigate the reactions of Hg with both I and OH in this paper. In contrast, the concentration of
atomic Cl is extremely low (