Cinnabar () and cinnabarite (), likely deriving from the Ancient Greek: ????????? (kinnabari), refer to the common bright scarlet to brick-red form of mercury(II) sulfide, formula HgS, that is the most common source ore for refining elemental mercury, and is the historic source for the brilliant red or scarlet pigment termed vermilion and associated red mercury pigments.
Cinnabar generally occurs as a vein-filling mineral associated with recent volcanic activity and alkaline hot springs. The mineral resembles quartz in symmetry and in its exhibiting birefringence; cinnabar has a mean refractive index of ~3.2, a hardness between 2 and 2.5, and a specific gravity of ~8.1. The color and properties derive from a structure that is a rhombohedral crystalline lattice belonging to the hexagonal crystal system, crystals that sometimes exhibit twinning.
Cinnabar has been used for its color since antiquity in the Near East, including as a rouge-type cosmetic, in the New World since the Olmec culture, and in China since as early as the Yangshao culture, where it was used in coloring stoneware.
Associated modern precautions for use and handling of cinnabar arise from the toxicity of the mercury component, which was recognized as early as ancient Rome.
Video Cinnabar
Etymology
The name comes from Ancient Greek: ????????? (kinnabari), a Greek word most likely applied by Theophrastus to several distinct substances. Other sources say the word comes from the Persian: ??????? shangarf (Arabicized as ?????? zinjifrah), a word of uncertain origin. In Latin, it was sometimes known as minium, meaning also "red cinnamon", though both of these terms now refer specifically to lead tetroxide.
Maps Cinnabar
Properties and structure
Properties
Cinnabar is generally found in a massive, granular or earthy form and is bright scarlet to brick-red in color, though it occasionally occurs in crystals with a non-metallic adamantine luster. It resembles quartz in its symmetry. It exhibits birefringence, and it has the highest refractive index of any mineral. Its mean refractive index is 3.08 (sodium light wavelengths), versus the indices for diamond and the non-mineral gallium(III) arsenide (GaAs), which are 2.42 and 3.93, respectively. The hardness of cinnabar is 2.0-2.5 on the Mohs scale, and its specific gravity 8.1.
Structure
Structurally, cinnabar belongs to the trigonal crystal system. It occurs as thick tabular or slender prismatic crystals or as granular to massive incrustations. Crystal twinning occurs as simple contact twins.
Note, mercury(II) sulfide, HgS, adopts the cinnabar structure described, and one additional structure, i.e. it is dimorphous. Cinnabar is the more stable form, and is a structure akin to that of HgO: each Hg center has two short Hg-S bonds (each 2.36 Å), and four longer HgoooS contacts (with 3.10, 3.10, 3.30, and 3.30 Å separations). In addition, HgS is found in a black, non-cinnabar polymorph (metacinnabar) that has the zincblende structure.
Occurrence
Cinnabar generally 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. It is associated with native mercury, stibnite, realgar, pyrite, marcasite, opal, quartz, chalcedony, dolomite, calcite and barite.
Cinnabar is essentially found in all mineral extraction localities that yield mercury, notably Almadén (Spain); Puerto Princesa (Philippines); New Almaden (California); Hastings Mine and St. John's Mine, Vallejo, California; Idrija (Slovenia); New Idria (California); Giza, Egypt; Moschellandsberg near Obermoschel in the Palatinate; La Ripa, at the foot of the Apuan Alps and in the Mount Amiata (both in Tuscany); the mountain Avala (Serbia); Huancavelica (Peru); Murfreesboro, Arkansas; Terlingua, Texas (United States); and the province of Guizhou in China, where fine crystals have been obtained. It was also mined near Red Devil, Alaska on the middle Kuskokwim River. Red Devil was named after the Red Devil cinnabar mine, a primary source of mercury. It has been found in Dominica near its sulfur springs at the southern end of the island along the west coast.
Cinnabar is still being deposited, e.g, at the present day from the hot waters of Sulphur Bank Mine in California and Steamboat Springs, Nevada.
Mining and extraction of mercury
As the most common source of mercury in nature, cinnabar has been mined for thousands of years, even as far back as the Neolithic Age. During the Roman Empire it was mined both as a pigment, and for its mercury content.
To produce liquid mercury (quicksilver), 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 metal, which is most often shipped in iron flasks.
Toxicity
Associated modern precautions for use and handling of cinnabar arise from the toxicity of the mercury component, which was recognized as early as in ancient Rome. Because of its mercury content, cinnabar can be toxic to human beings. Though people in ancient South America often used cinnabar for art, or processed it into refined mercury (as a means to gild silver and gold to objects) "the toxic properties of mercury were well known. It was dangerous to those who mined and processed cinnabar, it caused shaking, loss of sense, and death. Data suggest that mercury was retorted from cinnabar and the workers were exposed to the toxic mercury fumes." Overexposure to mercury, mercurialism, was seen as an occupational disease to the ancient Romans: "Mining in the Spanish cinnabar mines of Almadén, 225 km (140 mi) southwest of Madrid, was regarded as being akin to a death sentence due to the shortened life expectancy of the miners, who were slaves or convicts."
Decorative use
Cinnabar has been used for its color since antiquity in the Near East, including as a rouge-type cosmetic, in the New World since the Olmec culture, and in China since as early as the Song dynasty, where it was used in coloring lacquerware.
Cinnabar's use as a color in the New World, since the Olmec culture, is exemplified by its use in royal burial chambers during the peak of Maya civilization, most dramatically in the Tomb of the Red Queen in Palenque (600-700 AD), where the remains of a noble woman and objects belonging to her in her sarcophagus were completely covered with bright red powder made from cinnabar.
The most popularly known use of cinnabar is in Chinese carved lacquerware, a technique that apparently originated in the Song dynasty. The danger of mercury poisoning may be reduced in ancient lacquerware by entraining the powdered pigment in lacquer, but could still pose an environmental hazard if the pieces were accidentally destroyed. In the modern jewelry industry, the toxic pigment is replaced by a resin-based polymer that approximates the appearance of pigmented lacquer.
Other forms
- Hepatic cinnabar or paragite is an impure brownish variety from the mines of Idrija in the Carniola region of Slovenia, in which the cinnabar is mixed with bituminous and earthy matter.
- Hypercinnabar, crystallizes at high temperature in the hexagonal crystal system.
- Metacinnabar is a black-colored form of Hg(II)S, which crystallizes in the cubic crystal system.
- Synthetic cinnabar is produced by treatment of Hg(II) salts with hydrogen sulfide to precipitate black, synthetic metacinnabar, which is then heated in water. This conversion is promoted by the presence of sodium sulfide.
See also
- China red
- Classification of minerals
- List of minerals
References
Further reading
- Susan Stewart, 2014, "'Gleaming and deadly white': Toxic cosmetics in the Roman world," pp. 84f, 79-88, in History of Toxicology and Environmental Health: Toxicology in Antiquity II (Philip Wexler, Ed.), New York, NY, USA:Academic Press, ISBN 0-12-801634-5
- Barone G., Di Bella M., Mastelloni M.A., Mazzoleni P., Quartieri S., Raneri S., Sabatino G., Vailati C., Pottery Production of the Pittore di Lipari: Chemical and Mineralogical Analysis of the Pigments, in 2 end European Mineralogical Conference, emc2016 "Minerals, Fluids and Rocks: Alphabet and Words of Planet Earth", Rimini, 11-15 sett. 2016, p. 716
External links
- MSDS for cinnabar
- Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Program - Mercury
- Cinnabar visual reference
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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