Diffuse soil gas emissions of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) from hydrothermal-volcanic systems: An innovative approach by using the static closed-chamber method

This study was aimed to test a new methodological approach to carry out measurements of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) diffusively emitted from soils in hydrothermal-volcanic environments. This method was based on the use of a static closed-chamber (SCC) in combination with a Lumex® RA-915M analyzer that provides GEM measurements in a wide range of concentrations (from 2 to 50,000 ng m-3). Gas samples were collected at fixed time intervals from the SCC positioned on the ground (time-series samples). The Lumex® inlet port was equipped with a three-way Teflon valve allowing the free entrance of air through a carbon trap, in order to: (i) prevent disturbance to the Lumex® operative flow rate …