Meanwhile, Antarctica has been functioning as a kind of mercury 'sink', locking away large amounts of pollution in its layers of ice. And as Antarctica melts, it's leaking all that 'legacy' mercury into the ocean, too. Although it seems worlds away from any sources of industrial mercury emissions, the Antarctic Peninsula shelf accumulates mercury at twice the rate of the global shelf average. "Thus, climate warming is turning the large historical mercury reservoir in Antarctica into an active secondary pollution source, amplifying polar mercury pollution risk." mercury export from the Antarctic Peninsula into the open ocean via currents has surged by 400 percent, suggesting this mercury contamination could spread further afield.