Assessment of mercury dispersal in an abandoned mining area by soil and lichen analysis

The total Hg content in soil and in the epiphytic lichen Parmelia sulcata was determined in a former cinnabar mining area on Mt. Amiata. Metal concentrations in soil and in lichen are significantly related and decrease at increasing distances from the zone most affected by minespoil and by air which is still vented from mine shafts. On the basis of these results and of Al analysis, it seems likely that anomalous Hg content in Mt. Amiata lichens is mainly due to the out-gassing of volatile Hg from soil, from vegetation and, in the most heavily polluted zone, to the air from mine shafts.