Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Letter: Solid mercury

Published 20 November 1999

From Andrew Gray

I read with interest your article on a “snowball” Earth
(6 November, p 28),
in which Gabrielle Walker states that “with the mercury barely topping –40
°C, only a few living things survive”.

This snowball Earth must have been a strange place indeed. In today’s world,
the mercury would have solidified at −39 °C.

Gairloch, Ross-shire

Issue no. 2213 published 20 November 1999

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