Large-Scale Mercury Dispersion at Sea: Modelling a Multi-Hazard Case Study from Augusta Bay (Central Mediterranean Sea).

ABSTRACT: This contribution discusses an example of potential multi-hazard effects resulting from an earthquake in a highly seismogenic area of the Mediterranean Sea, the Augusta Bay, which presents high levels of contamination in sediments and seawater, due particularly to high-concentrations of mercury as a result of a long-term industrial exploitation. In particular, a high-resolution hydrodynamic and transport model is used to calculate the effects of enhanced mercury spreading in the open sea after significant damage and collapse of the artificial damming system confining the embayment where a very high concentration of Hg occurs in seafloor sediments and seawater. Coupling high-resolution 3D dynamic circulation modelling and sediment-seawater Hg fluxes calculated using the HR3DHG diffusion-rea

SUBMITTER: Sprovieri M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8997764 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature