Sediment Mercury Profile, Laguna de Pozuelos, Argentine Northwest

The data represent a shallow mercury chronology using sediment core from a playa lake system situated in a high-altitude setting in northwest Argentina. Archive samples were used from sediment core (LP07-1A) that was collected from a location (lat -22.362100, lon -66.003600) in the center of the playa-lake Laguna de Pozuelos in the dry season of 2007, when the water level was 2 to 3 cm. The samples were taken over 1 to 2 cm intervals and had been dried and homogenized. Sediment total mercury analyses were conducted by digesting sediment (0.30 g) in boiling concentrated nitric/sulfuric acid (ratio 3:1), followed by 12 hour oxidation with bromine monochloride, tin chloride reduction, gold amalgamation, and detection by CVAFS. Additional information about the core, including age model and basin information, can be found in McGlue, M.M., Ellis, G.S., Cohen, A.S., Swarzenski, P.W. (2012) Playa-lake sedimentation and organic matter accumulation in an Andean piggyback basin: the recent record from the Cuenca de Pozuelos, North-west Argentina. Sedimentology 59 (4): 1237-1256. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3091.2011.01304.x