abundance of the mineral cinnabar?

Question

I'm doing an Earth project and cannot find the abundance of the mineral cinnabar or its chemical properties? HELP ME PLEASE!

Answer 1

Chemical Properties of Cinnabar
Formula: HgS

Elements: Hg, S
Relationship of Cinnabar to other Species
Common Associates: Dolomite Calcite Silver Laffittite Getchellite
Orpiment Edoylerite

Related Minerals - Strunz Grouping): 2/C.18-20 Hypercinnabar HgS


Related Minerals - Hey's Index Grouping: 3.5.2 Hypercinnabar HgS

3.5.3 Metacinnabar HgS

3.5.4 Imiterite Ag
2
HgS
2


3.5.5 Tiemannite HgSe

3.5.6 Balkanite Cu
9
Ag
5
HgS
8


3.5.7 Danielsite (Cu,Ag)
14
HgS
8


3.5.8 Coloradoite HgTe

3.5.9 Gortdrumite (Cu,Fe)
6
Hg
2
S
5


3.5.10 Polhemusite (Zn,Hg)S

3.5.11 Carlinite Tl
2
S

3.5.12 Crookesite (Cu,Tl,Ag)
2
Se)

3.5.13 Sabatierite Cu
6
TlSe
4


3.5.14 Picotpaulite TlFe
2
S
3


3.5.15 Raguinite TlFeS
2


3.5.16 Thalcusite Tl
2
Cu
3
FeS
4


3.5.17 Bukovite Tl
2
(Cu,Fe)
4
Se
4


3.5.18 Gallite CuGaS
2


3.5.19 Roquesite CuInS
2


3.5.20 Indite FeIn
2
S
4



Other Names for Cinnabar
Synonyms: 朱矽 辰矽 Cinabre Cinabrio Cinabro
Cinnabarite (of Dana) Llimpi Merkurblende Minium (of Pliny) Vermeil
Zinnober Αμμιον κινναβαρις Kupferbräune (in part)
Lebererz (of Werner) (in part)


Varieties: Corallinerz

Answer 2

Almost all mercury that occurs in the crust is found as cinnabar (HgS). By weight, mercury represents 67 parts per billion of the crust, and by atoms it is 7 parts per billion.

Now, if we take that information and pair it with the weight of sulphur, we can say that cinnabar makes up close to 77 parts per billion of the entire weight of the earth's crust. If you like percents, that's 7.7 millionths of a percent of the crust.

You'll probably note the use of the words 'close to'. That's, of course, because I made an incorrect esitmate to get that figure. The incorrect estimate is that all the mercury is tied up in cinnabar, when it's not. Just MOST of it. So the degree of accuracy has to do with how most it is. By most indications I can find, it should actually be fairly close.

As for what cinnabar itself is like, it's a lot like quartz: crystalline and prone to granularity. It also has the highest refractive index of any mineral, which is to say that no mineral naturally bends light more. Hope that helps!

Answer 3

Cinnabar, sometimes written cinnabarite, is a name applied to red mercury(II) sulfide (HgS), or native vermilion, the common ore of mercury. The name comes from the Greek - "kinnabari" - used by Theophrastus, and was probably applied to several distinct substances. Other sources say the word comes from the Persian zinjifrah, originally meaning "lost"

Structure

HgS adopts two structures, i.e. it is dimorphous. The more stable form is cinnabar, which has a structure akin to that for HgO: each Hg center has two short Hg-S bonds (2.36 Å), and four longer Hg---S contacts (3.10, 3.10, 3.30, 3.30 Å). The black form of HgS has the zinc blende structure.


Properties

Cinnabar is generally found in a massive, granular or earthy form and is bright scarlet to brick-red in color. It occasionally occurs, however, in crystals with a metallic adamantine luster. The crystals belong to the rhombohedral (trigonal) system, and are generally of rhombohedral habit, sometimes twinned. The twinning in cinnabar is distinctive and forms a penetration twin that is ridged with six ridges surrounding the point of a pyramid. It could be thought of as two scalahedral crystals grown together with one crystal going the opposite way of the other crystal. The hardness of cinnabar is 2 - 2.5, and its specific gravity 8.998.

Cinnabar resembles quartz in its symmetry and certain of its optical characteristics. Like quartz, it exhibits birefringence. It has the highest refractive power of any mineral. Its mean index for sodium light is 3.02, whereas the index for diamond—a substance of remarkable refraction— is 2.42 and that for GaAs is 3.93.

Occurrence

Generally cinnabar occurs as a vein-filling mineral associated with recent volcanic activity and alkaline hot springs.

Cinnabar is found in all localities that yield mercury, notably Almaden (Spain), New Almaden (California), Idrija (Slovenia), New Idria (California), Landsberg, near Obermoschel in the Palatinate, Ripa, at the foot of the Apuan Alps (Tuscany), the mountain Avala (Serbia), Huancavelica (Peru), Terlingua (Texas), and the province of Guizhou in China, where fine crystals have been obtained.

Cinnabar is still being deposited at the present day from the hot waters of Sulphur Bank, in California, and Steamboat Springs, Nevada.

Mining and extraction of mercury

Cinnabar was mined by the Roman Empire both as a pigment and for its mercury content, and it has been the main ore of mercury throughout the centuries. Some mines used by the Romans remain active today.

To produce liquid (quicksilver) mercury, crushed cinnabar ore is roasted in rotary furnaces. Pure mercury separates from sulfur in this process and easily evaporates. A condensing column is used to collect the liquid mercury, which is most often shipped in iron flasks.

Because of the high toxicity of mercury, both the mining of cinnabar and refining for mercury are hazardous and historic causes of mercury poisoning. In particular, the Romans used convict labor in their mines as a form of death sentence. The Spanish also used shorter term convict labor at the Almaden mines, with a 24% overall fatality rate in one 30 year period.

Abandoned mercury mine processing sites often contain very hazardous waste piles of roasted cinnabar calcines. Water runoff from such sites is a recognized source of ecological damage.

Answer 4

There's an excellent article on your mineral at wikipedia.

Answer 5

It is mercury sulfide HgS.

Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnabar

Answer 6

mercury sulfide

it's found near recent volcanic activity in mineral veins deposited by steam interacting with volcanic material.

Answer 7

as above