Mercury Sulfide - GEO 026

GEO 026

Cinnabar in Calcite

Class: Mineral

Location: Mexico

Well it's been about a month since I last posted something from the Geological Collections so here you guys go, it's not 'pretty' by any means but is somewhat interesting. Now this particular mineral specimen is known as Cinnabar as is a mercury sulfide, being that its chemical composition is HgS. cinnabars are normally more reddish in color but can also be transparent/translucent like this particular piece. But this chunk is actually cinnabar in calcite, which is actually another fairly clear mineral.

I got this mineral from an estate sale in Walworth, New York and the actual specimen comes all the way from it's original location of Chihuahua, Mexico. Now more information about this mineral species can be found at this cinnabar data page. There you can find some normal mineral information, such as its specific gravity of 8.1, its hardness of about 2-2.5 (which is pretty low on Moh's Scale of Hardness; Diamond is the hardest and is a 10), and it has a bright red streak when used on a white streak plate.