# Chemicals/Mercuries

Def. a naturally occurring, silvery-colored, metallic liquid, composed primarily of the chemical element mercury, is called mercury, or native mercury.
This specimen on the right is from an uncommon California locality, the Socrates Mine.

## Emissions

"The green mercury line λ 5461 appears to be quite unique in the possession of its satellites."
There are "telluric mercury lines".
There are an additional pair of lines for mercury, one at 496.03 nm in the green and the second at 491.6 nm in the cyan.
As the spectrum of mercury (Hg) indicates, it has lines in the violet.

## Gases

Gaseous mercury is used in mercury-vapor lamps and some "neon sign" type advertising signs and fluorescent lamps. Those low-pressure lamps emit very spectrally narrow lines, which are traditionally used in optical spectroscopy for calibration of spectral position.
Electricity passed through mercury vapor in a fluorescent lamp produces short-wave ultraviolet light, which then causes the phosphor in the tube to fluoresce, making visible light.
Mercury(I) hydride (HgH) is an unstable gas.
The Hg-H bond is very weak and therefore the compound has only been matrix isolated at temperatures up to 6 K. The Mercury(II) hydride (dihydride), HgH$_2$, has also been detected this way.

## Liquids

Def. a naturally occurring, silvery-colored, metallic liquid, composed primarily of the chemical element mercury, is called mercury, or native mercury.
The metallic element mercury is a liquid at room temperature and pressure as shown in the image on the right.
Mercury is the only recognised mineral that is found as a liquid at room temperature. Cinnabar alters to native mercury in the oxidized zone of deposits. Native mercury is also quite rare.

## Hydrothermal veins

Occurrence: In hydrothermal As–S veins (Alacr ́an mine, Chile); in the condensation zone of a hydrothermal Hg–Sb–As system as cement in a sandy gravel (Uzon caldera, Russia); formed at low temperatures in a polymetallic hydrothermal deposit on a submarine seamount (Conical Seamount, Papua New Guinea).
Geological Setting: in the condensation zone of a hydrothermal Hg–Sb–As system as cement in a sandy gravel (Uzon caldera, Russia); formed at low temperatures in a polymetallic hydrothermal deposit on a submarine seamount (Conical Seamount, Papua New Guinea).

## Solids

An amalgam is an alloy of mercury with another metal, that may be a liquid, a soft paste or a solid.

## Alloys

An amalgam is an alloy of mercury with another metal, that may be a liquid, a soft paste or a solid, depending upon the proportion of mercury, formed through metallic bonding, with the electrostatic attractive force of the conduction electrons working to bind all the positively charged metal ions together into a crystal lattice structure. Almost all metals can form amalgams with mercury, the notable exceptions being iron, platinum, tungsten, and tantalum. Silver-mercury amalgams are important in dentistry, and gold-mercury amalgam is used in the extraction of gold from ore. Dentistry has used alloys of mercury with metals such as silver, copper, indium, tin and zinc.

## Arquerites

Arquerite is a very rare variety of mercurian silver amalgam containing 13% of mercury. This rarity is found in only 4 localities worldwide, 2 in Chile (Type Locality) and 2 in British Columbia, Canada.
This flattened, rounded thumbnail is river-worn, since arquerite is composed of two soft native elements, silver and mercury. The placer deposits here were mined intermittently between 1940 and 1963.

## Minerals

Mercury is found either as a native metal (rare) or in cinnabar, metacinnabar, sphalerite, corderoite, livingstonite and other minerals, with cinnabar (HgS) being the most common ore.

## Aktashites

Aktashites have the chemical formula: Cu $_6$Hg $_3$As $_4$S $_{12}$.
Aktashite (International Mineralogical Association (IMA) symbol: Ats) is a rare arsenic sulfosalt mineral, the only one known, of hydrothermal origin.
Type Locality: Aktashskoye Sb-Hg deposit, Ulagansky District, Altai Republic, Russia.
Common Impurities: Zn and Sb.
Crystal System: Trigonal.
Morphology: Rarely in crystals resembling trigonal pyramids, to 0.2 mm, which may be zoned with gruzdevite; as xenomorphic grains and granular aggregates.
Geological Setting: Hydrothermal veins.
Geological Setting of Type Material: Uncommon, of hydrothermal origin in complex polymetallic As–Hg-bearing deposits.
Associated Minerals at Type Locality: Tennantite Subgroup, Stibnite, Sphalerite, Realgar, Quartz, Pyrite, Orpiment, Mercurian Tetrahedrite, Luzonite, Enargite, Dickite, Cinnabar, Chalcostibite, Chalcopyrite and Calcite.
Association: Stibnite, chalcostibite, mercurian tetrahedrite, tennantite, luzonite, enargite, cinnabar, chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite, realgar, orpiment, dickite, quartz, calcite.
Isostructural with: Gruzdevite and Nowackiite.
Forms a series with: Gruzdevite, Aktashite-Gruzdevite Series.
Associated Minerals Based on Photo Data: 3 photos of Aktashite associated with Arsiccioite AgHg $_2$Tl(As,Sb) $_2$S $_6$, 1 photo of Aktashite associated with Realgar As $_4$S $_4$.

## Cinnabars

Cinnabar or cinnabarite (red mercury(II) sulfide (HgS), native vermilion), is the common ore of mercury. Its color is cochineal-red, towards brownish red and lead-gray. Cinnabar may be found in a massive, granular or earthy form and is bright scarlet to brick-red in color. Generally cinnabar occurs as a vein-filling mineral associated with recent volcanic activity and alkaline hot springs. Cinnabar is deposited by epithermal ascending aqueous solutions (those near surface and not too hot) far removed from their igneous source.

## Rocks

Mercury is an extremely rare element in Earth's crust, having an average crustal abundance by mass of only 0.08 parts per million (ppm). Because it does not blend geochemically with those elements that constitute the majority of the crustal mass, mercury ores can be extraordinarily concentrated considering the element's abundance in ordinary rock. The richest mercury ores contain up to 2.5% mercury by mass, and even the leanest concentrated deposits are at least 0.1% mercury (12,000 times average crustal abundance). Cinnabar (HgS) being the most common ore. Mercury ores usually occur in very young orogenic belts where rocks of high density are forced to the crust of Earth, often in hot springs or other volcanic regions.

## Glaciers

"Abundant cinnabar (HgS) mineralization is associated with the Pinchi Fault in central British Columbia. [...] The mercury content of till (a sediment type directly deposited by glaciers) in the area of this fault is primarily controlled by the occurrence of cinnabar mineralization in bedrock an the direction of ice flow. Cinnabar-bearing bedrock was eroded by glaciers, transported in the direction of ice flow, and deposited "down-ice" from its source."

## Resources

* Actinides
* Aluminums
* Berylliums
* Borons
* Leads
* Lithiums
* Materials
* Mineraloids
* Nickels
* Rocks as chemicals
* Rocks
* Solids
* Thoriums
* Volcanoes