ABSTRACT
The idea for this research took shape gradually. The first author of this chapter learned in 1974 of a mercury anomaly detected by an International Atomic Energy Agency geochemical survey on the Chalcidice peninsula in Greece. The high mercury results found were not caused by hidden ores, but by blasting during the construction of a road. The mercury originated from mercury fulminate used as initial explosive in percussion caps.4 In 1991, when during the secession of Slovenia from Yugoslavia a military depot was blown up at β rni vrh near Idrija, Slovenia, a few soil samples (the J and K sample sets, as shown in this chapter) were taken and increased levels of mercury, cadmium, copper and lead were found at these sites.5
