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Regional Trends of Isotopic Composition in Total Gaseous Mercury Across the United States

Metadata Updated: October 29, 2025

The dataset presented here represents the concentrations and stable isotopic composition of gaseous mercury (Hg) for 31 sites across the United States. This national-scale monitoring effort was performed by the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) and the USGS over a two-year period (March 2016 - May 2018). The network includes a highly diverse set of sites ranging from remote (e.g. Denali National Park, AK and Mauna Loa, HI) to highly urbanized (e.g. Bronx, NY and Boston, MA). Air samples were collected using a custom designed bulk air sampler, in which air was pumped at approximately 1 L/min through particulate and soda lime filters prior to passing through two quartz tubes containing gold coated glass beads where gaseous Hg was collected. Each sampling period was two weeks long. The Hg was thermally desorbed from the gold beads and collected in a liquid oxidizing trap. The total Hg concentration and isotopic composition was determined on this solution. The average total gaseous Hg concentration across sites was 1.23 ± 0.28 ng/m3, but higher concentrations were observed at sites closer to known Hg sources, such as Oak Ridge National Lab (6.53 ng/m3). For all sites, the average odd isotope mass independent fractionation (MIF, Δ199Hg), an indicator of photochemistry, was -0.20 ± 0.07‰ and had a range of -0.43 to 0.01 ‰. Mass dependent fractionation (MDF, δ202Hg), the commonly used isotope ratio for source tracking, was generally positive with a mean value of 0.45 ± 0.40‰, although intermittent negative MDF was also observed at some sites. Urban sites were consistently lighter in δ202Hg (0.34‰) compared to remote background sites (0.65‰), potentially indicating differences between emission sources. Though regional differences in odd MIF and MDF were small, we observed a trend showing enrichment of δ202Hg in the northeastern United States, from the Ohio River Valley to remote sites in northern Maine and Nova Scotia, suggesting a shift from localized emission sources to globally transported Hg across this region.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5d51e54de4b01d82ce8e205f
Data Last Modified 2023-02-28T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id d5e37645-85f0-4020-bf7c-24bc1dccba30
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -172.9688, 21.6166, -59.7656, 71.9654
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash ed89484ad49639a84e257774c86e6724295b619ecdcd7ccc07d6a1dd05339fe8
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -172.9688, 21.6166, -172.9688, 71.9654, -59.7656, 71.9654, -59.7656, 21.6166, -172.9688, 21.6166}

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