Mercury Case Study

Mercury is an element of the earth, and can take place naturally as well from manmade. Mercury continuously comes up towards the surface of the earth’s crust, because of the high temperature of the earth’s mantle, and this can make mercury a very mobile source. Surface rocks can contain high levels of concentrated mercury, which can add to the levels of emission standards of mercury. Natural sources can come from the earth crust, volcanoes, and erosion. Others are from weather, floods, and forest fires. This type of contamination is beyond mans control, and must be considered part of our atmosphere mercury levels. Scientist to this day have been struggling to separate the two from mans involvement to the natural output of mercury. Other

The topic of the article is the connection (or lack of) between childhood vaccines (MMR) and autism. Contrary to popular opinion, vaccines are not linked to autism in any shape or form and there is no scientific evidence to support it.

It is believed that only 55% of Mercury has been mapped, however, that 55% has yielded a number of interesting finds, there are three significant geological features on Mercury, these are: smooth plains, intercrater plains and rugged highlands. The smooth plains resemble Lunar Maria, that is, large dark basaltic plains formed by ancient volcanic eruption, found on the Earth’s moon. The Intercrater Plains are impact craters, pocked with a number of smaller craters, which cover 70% of the examined surface. These craters are particularly deep, due to the planets lack of an atmosphere to slow the bodies before impact. The rugged highlands resemble mountainous regions of the Earth; however, there is no evidence of tectonic motions to have caused them. Mercury is made up of predominately iron, its crust is only 500-600km thick and there is evidence of volcanic activity, although it is believed that the planet has been geologically dormant for billions of years.

Karen Nelson, Neuroepidemiology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and Margaret Bauman, Children’s Neurology Service, Harvard Medical School conducted a study on neuropathology of mercury toxicity. Nelson and Bauman asserted ethylmercury lacks the active transport mechanism across the blood-brain barrier that other found available to methylmercury however; they provided no evidence to support this assertion. The L system is the major transport

Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is a rocky planet. The heavily cratered planet suggests that meteors or comets were frequent many, many years ago. Mercury's boulder littered surface and pale gray appearance slightly resembles Earth's moon. Like Mars, Mercury is covered in pulverized dust. What Mercury lacks in this, is weather. Muggle probes bring images to us that show no signs of wind, dust storms, or clouds. No rivers have been found on Mercury. Lack of clouds and rivers, (and oceans) suggests that there is no water on the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury. One of Mercury's most famous craters is Caloris basin, which is 1550 km in diameter. Another of Mercury's most famous craters is called Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff is 306 km in diameter. These two very large craters were created by astroids impacting the planet in Mercury's early history.

As already stated, many other locations around the world are affected by mercury poisoning and contamination. For example, Canada and Japan have an extensive history of mercury poisoning, including neurologic symptoms and contaminated fish. These studies have has been documented since the 1950’s in these locations. In fact, the contamination became so problematic the Ontario health department formed a task force on organic mercury in 1972. Further, recent protesting throughout Toronto has asked for Canada to address the contamination of mercury. Findings revealed levels of mercury exceeding those of international standards and included the highest recorded mercury contamination among in the western part of the world. (CITE 6)

Mercury is an element that can be found in our environment through air, water and soil. Being exposed to constant levels of mercury may be detrimental to one’s overall health since it can impact the nervous, digestive and immune systems of human (WHO). In 1960, the demand of Mercury (Hg) increased significantly as it was needed in many commercial and medical practices, despite its high toxicity levels (dwivedi). Thus, the increase in mercury consumption was due to industrialization. Mercury should be gaining increased medical concerns as it can impact the lives of several classes of society. In Canada, it is found that the vast majority of marine mammals contain methylmercury (MeHg) (Laird). Methylmercury is highly more lethal than Mercury

There are characteristics of Mercury that make it an appropriate target, and some that make it not. The different characteristics presented in the case are as follows:

The autism scare started 17 years ago, in the year 1998, when a paper was published in the British medical journal called The Lancet. Andrew Wakefield, M.D., a British gastroenterologist, and his colleagues were the authors of this paper which started the scare of immunizations causing autism. "Wakefield had a case study of eight children who had received the MMR and then developed symptoms of autism, says Paul Offit, M.D., chief of infectious diseases at the Children 's Hospital of Philadelphia. He also believed they had abnormal intestinal tracts and proposed a syndrome -- linking intestinal inflammation from receiving the MMR with the development of autism.” (Rope)

As humans continue to live on Earth the climate is changing which is melting the Polar Ice Caps along with rising sea levels. Due to these changes to Earths Climate over the next millennia Earths lands may disappear and be taken over completely by the ocean. The human population is also constantly increasing and we need more space to survive. What can we do to survive? Where can we go? This film Deadliest Planets on YouTube will help us to explore our options.

With all the hype surrounding the Mercury transit doomsday theory, it almost seems that evil aliens exist on the planet itself. Apparently, that may not seem as outlandish as it sounds. NASA has discovered that life may be possible on the planet although it would hardly be glamorous.

Which is the smallest of the eight planets in our solar system? That would be the first planet in our solar system, Mercury. According to www.coolcosmos.com (2012), Mercury is named after the Roman messenger god. This planet was discovered around the 265 B.C. Mercury has 2 nicknames; Quicksilver and Hermes. It is located 28.6 million miles away from the Sun, and 47,845,581.802 miles away from Venus. Mercury is an exciting planet to research because of the missions that have been accomplished on the planet, its composition, and its location in the solar system.

I force my fingers, numb from the cold, to work, as I finish assembling Professor Polgara’s new Scope 72, a fantastic black and golden telescope. She lent it to me with the promise of it being returned in absolute perfect condition, and accompanied by a report on my observations. My assignment for this morning: the elusive planet Mercury.

Mercury's surface is covered with impact craters, basaltic rock and smooth plains, many a consequence of volcanic floods and pyroclastic deposits. Other important features of Mercury include vents which seem to be the cause of magma-carved valleys. They are often grouped togther in irregular-shaped depressions called "hollows" that are believed to be the aftermath of collapsed magma chambers, and mineral deposits inside craters at the poles. It was long thought that Mercury was geologically inactive however new evidence tells us there may be some level of life.

Mercury is a rocky planet. The surface is heavily cratered like Earth’s moon. Mercury is also covered with boulders and pulverized dust. There is no sign of weather at all, be it clouds or rivers, dust storms or anything. Mercury is geologically dead. Mercury has dorsa, moon-like highlands, montes, planitiae, rupes, and valles. Mercury was heavily bombarded by comets and asteroids. The largest known crater is Caloris Basin with a diameter of 1550km. There are two different types of distinct geographic plains that can be seen on the surface of Mercury. The gently, rolling, hilly plains which are the oldest visible surface on the planet and smooth plains which are widespread flat areas that fill various areas. One feature that is odd would be the rupes, which crisscross the planet’s surface. Rupes are compression folds.