Cinnabar

The name comes from Greek {{lang|grc|κιννάβαρι}} ({{transl|grc|kinnabari}}),{{OEtymD|cinnabar}}{{LSJ|kinna/bari|κιννάβαρι|ref}}. a Greek word most likely applied by Theophrastus to several distinct substances. In Latin, it was sometimes known as minium, meaning also "red cinnamon",{{L&S|minium|ref}} though both of these terms now refer specifically to lead tetroxide.{{cite book|first=Daniel V. |last=Thompson |date=1956 |title=The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting |location=Chicago, IL |publisher=Dover (R. R. Donnelley-Courier) |pages= 100–102}}

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 nonmetallic adamantine luster.{{cite journal | journal = Geology Today | volume = 18 | issue = 5 | pages = 195–199 | title = Minerals Explained 37: Cinnabar | first = R. J. | last = King | doi = 10.1046/j.0266-6979.2003.00366.x | year = 2002 | s2cid = 247674748 }}{{cite book|last1=Klein |first1=Cornelis |first2=Cornelius S. Jr |last2=Hurlbut |title=Manual of Mineralogy |url=https://archive.org/details/manualofmineralo00klei |url-access=registration |publisher=Wiley |edition=20th |date=1985 |page=[https://archive.org/details/manualofmineralo00klei/page/281 281] |isbn=0-471-80580-7}} It resembles quartz in its symmetry. It exhibits birefringence, and it has the second-highest refractive index of any mineral.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gemsociety.org/article/table-refractive-index-double-refraction-gems/|title=Table of Refractive Indices and Double Refraction of Selected Gems - IGS|website=International Gem Society|language=en|access-date=2020-01-22}} Its mean refractive index is 3.08 (sodium light wavelengths),{{cite book | last = Schumann | first = W. | title = Gemstones of the World | location = New York, NY | publisher = Sterling | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-8069-9461-4 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/gemstonesofworld00schu }}{{page needed|date=July 2015}} 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.

File:Cinnabar crystal structure.png

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.

Mercury(II) sulfide, HgS, adopts the cinnabar structure described, and one additional structure, i.e. it is dimorphous.{{cite book | last = Wells | first = A. F. | year = 1984 | title = Structural Inorganic Chemistry | location = Oxford, Oxon | publisher = Clarendon Press | isbn = 0-19-855370-6 }}{{page needed|date=July 2015}} 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 {{nowrap|Hg···S}} 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.

File:cinnabar09.jpg, United States]]

Cinnabar generally occurs as a vein-filling mineral associated with volcanic activity and alkaline hot springs. Cinnabar is deposited by epithermal ascending aqueous solutions (those near the surface and not too hot) far removed from their igneous source.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/segweb/books/book/1816/chapter/107705190/Thermal-Springs-and-Epithermal-Ore-Deposits|publisher=GeoScienceWorld|chapter=Thermal Springs and Epithermal Ore Deposits|doi=10.5382/AV50.03|title=Fiftieth Anniversary Volume, 1905–1955|year=1955|last1=White|first1=Donald E.|isbn=978-1-9349-6952-6}} It is associated with native mercury, stibnite, realgar, pyrite, marcasite, opal, quartz, chalcedony, dolomite, calcite, and barite.

Cinnabar is found in essentially all mineral extraction localities that yield mercury, notably Almadén (Spain). This mine was exploited from Roman times until 1991, being for centuries the most important cinnabar deposit in the world. Good cinnabar crystals have also been found there.{{Cite book|title=Minerales y Minas de España |volume=II. Sulfuros y sulfosales|last=Calvo|first=Miguel|publisher=Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Alava|year=2003|isbn=84-7821-543-3|location=Vitoria, Spain|pages=355–359}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.mindat.org/gm/1052?page=21|title=Cinnabar. Spain|website=Mindat}} Cinnabar deposits appear in Giza (Egypt); Puerto Princesa (Philippines); Red Devil, Alaska; Murfreesboro, Arkansas; New Almaden Mine{{cite web |publisher=Santa Clara County Parks |title=Almaden Quicksilver Mining Museum |url=https://parks.sccgov.org/plan-your-visit/activities/cultural-venues/almaden-quicksilver-mining-museum#1849274314-3146410750 |access-date=25 August 2024}}{{cite web |first=Jane |last=Kay |work=SFGate |title=Tracking a toxic trail / Long-closed mine identified as largest source of mercury in San Francisco Bay |date=December 22, 2002 |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/tracking-a-toxic-trail-long-closed-mine-2709557.php |access-date=25 August 2024}} in San Jose, California; New Idria, California, the Hastings Mine and St. John's Mine both in Vallejo, California; Terlingua, Texas (United States); Idrija (Slovenia); {{Interlanguage link multi|Moschellandsberg|de}} near Obermoschel in the Palatinate; the La Ripa and Levigliani mines{{Cite journal |last1=Dini |first1=Andrea |last2=Benvenuti |first2=Marco |last3=Costagliola |first3=Pilar |last4=Lattanzi |first4=Pierfranco |date=2001 |title=Mercury deposits in metamorphic settings: the example of Levigliani and Ripa mines, Apuane Alps (Tuscany, Italy) |journal=Ore Geology Reviews |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=149–167 |doi=10.1016/S0169-1368(01)00026-9|bibcode=2001OGRv...18..149D }} at the foot of the Apuan Alps and in Mount Amiata (Tuscany, Italy); Avala (Serbia); Huancavelica (Peru); the province of Guizhou in China and Western ghats in India where fine crystals have been obtained. It has been found in Dominica near its sulfur springs at the southern end of the island along the west coast.{{Cite journal|journal=Minerals|title=Arsenian Pyrite and Cinnabar from Active Submarine Nearshore Vents, Paleochori Bay, Milos Island, Greece|year=2020|doi=10.3390/min11010014|doi-access=free|last1=Voudouris|first1=Panagiotis|last2=Kati|first2=Marianna|last3=Magganas|first3=Andreas|last4=Keith|first4=Manuel|last5=Valsami-Jones|first5=Eugenia|last6=Haase|first6=Karsten|last7=Klemd|first7=Reiner|last8=Nestmeyer|first8=Mark|volume=11|issue=1|page=14|bibcode=2020Mine...11...14V|url=https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-fau/files/15520/minerals-11-00014-v3.pdf}}

File:Cinabrio Almadén 2.jpg

Cinnabar is still being deposited, such as from the hot waters of Sulphur Bank Mine{{Cite web|url=https://www.mindat.org/locentry-133387.html|publisher=Mindat|title=Cinnabar from Sulphur Bank Mine (Sulfur Bank Mine; Sulphur Bank deposits), Clear Lake Oaks, Sulphur Creek Mining District (Sulfur Creek Mining District; Wilbur Springs Mining District), Lake Co., California, USA|access-date=2021-03-15}} in California and Steamboat Springs, Nevada (United States).{{Cite web|url=https://www.mindat.org/locentry-204963.html|publisher=Mindat|title=Cinnabar from Steamboat Springs mine, Steamboat Springs Mining District, Washoe Co., Nevada, USA|access-date=2021-03-15}}

File:Alchimia 1570 p 9.tif

As the most common source of mercury in nature,{{cite web|url=http://ec.gc.ca/mercure-mercury/default.asp?lang=En&n=2C1BBBDA-1 |publisher=Environment Canada |title=Natural Sources: Mercury |date=9 January 2007 |access-date=2015-07-24}} cinnabar has been mined for thousands of years, even as far back as the Neolithic Age.{{cite journal |last1=Martín Gil |first1=J. |last2=Martín Gil |first2=F. J. |last3=Delibes de Castro |first3=G. |last4=Zapatero Magdaleno |first4=P. |last5=Sarabia Herrero |first5=F. J. | year = 1995 | title = The first known use of vermillion | journal = Experientia | volume = 51 | issue = 8 | pages = 759–761 | pmid = 7649232 | doi = 10.1007/BF01922425 |s2cid=21900879 | issn = 0014-4754 }} During the Roman Empire it was mined both as a pigment,{{cite book|author-link=Vitruvius |author=Vitruvius |title=De architectura |volume=VII |at=4–5|title-link=De architectura }}{{primary source inline|date=July 2015}}{{cite book|author-link=Pliny the Elder |author=Pliny |title=Natural History |volume=XXXIII |at=36–42|title-link=Natural History (Pliny) }}{{primary source inline|date=July 2015}} and for its mercury content.{{rp|XLI}}

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.{{cite journal|url=https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/041/jresv41n3p205_A1b.pdf |journal=Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards |title=Concentration of Isotopes of Mercury in Countercurrent Molecular Stills |first1=Samuel L. |last1=Madorsky |first2=Paul |last2=Bradt |first3=Sidney |last3=Straus |volume=41 |date=September 1948 |id=Research Paper RP1918 |access-date=2024-08-26}}

{{See also|Mercury poisoning}}

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.{{cite book |first=Susan |last=Stewart |date=2014 |contribution='Gleaming and deadly white': Toxic cosmetics in the Roman world |page=84 |title=History of Toxicology and Environmental Health: Toxicology in Antiquity |volume=II |editor-first=Philip |editor-last=Wexler |location=New York City |publisher=Academic Press |isbn=978-0-12-801634-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0128016345 |access-date=2015-07-24}} Because of its mercury content, cinnabar can be toxic to human beings. Overexposure to mercury, mercury poisoning (mercurialism), was seen as an occupational disease to the ancient Romans. 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 suggests that mercury was retorted from cinnabar and the workers were exposed to the toxic mercury fumes.{{cite book |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287174777 |title=Mining and Metallurgy in Ancient Peru |last=Petersen |first=G. |publisher=The Geological Society of America |year=2010 |series=Special Paper 467 |location=Boulder, Colorado|page=29}} "Mining in the Spanish cinnabar mines of Almadén, {{cvt|225|km}} 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."{{cite book |title = Principles and Methods of Toxicology |edition = 6th |last= Hayes |first= A. W. |publisher=Informa Healthcare |location = New York City |year=2014 |isbn = 978-1-842-14537-1 |page = 10}}

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 for writing on oracle bones as early as the Zhou dynasty. Late in the Song dynasty it was used in coloring lacquerware.{{Cn|date=January 2021}}

Cinnabar's use as a color in the New World, since the Olmec culture,{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,825208,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205015759/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,825208,00.html|archive-date=December 5, 2008|title=New World's Oldest|magazine=Time|date=1957-07-29}} is exemplified by its use in royal burial chambers during the peak of Maya civilization, most dramatically in the 7th-century tomb of the Red Queen in Palenque, 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.{{cite journal|last1=Healy |first1=Paul F.|first2=Marc G. |last2=Blainey|year=2011|title=Ancient Maya mosaic mirrors: Function, symbolism, and meaning|journal=Ancient Mesoamerica|volume = 22 | issue=2|page=230|doi=10.1017/S0956536111000241 |s2cid=162282151}}

File:Chinese carved cinnabar lacquerware.jpg. Adilnor Collection, Sweden]]

The most popularly known use of cinnabar is in Chinese carved lacquerware, a technique that apparently originated in the Song dynasty.{{cite book|editor-link=Jessica Rawson|editor-last=Rawson|editor-first=Jessica |title=The British Museum Book of Chinese Art |page=178 |date=2007 |edition=2nd |publisher=British Museum Press |isbn=978-0-7141-2446-9}} The danger of mercury poisoning may be reduced in ancient lacquerware by entraining the powdered pigment in lacquer,{{cite web|url=http://www.cst.cmich.edu/users/dietr1rv/cinnabar.htm|first=R. V. |last=Dietrich|year=2005|title=Cinnabar|work=Gemrocks: Ornamental & Curio Stones|publisher=University of Michigan | location = Ann Arbor, Michigan}}{{page needed|date=July 2015}} but could still pose an environmental hazard if the pieces were accidentally destroyed. In the modern jewellery industry, the toxic pigment is replaced by a resin-based polymer that approximates the appearance of pigmented lacquer.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

Two female mummies dated AD 1399 to 1475 found in Cerro Esmeralda in Chile in 1976 had clothes colored with cinnabar.{{cite web |url=https://www.livescience.com/63181-mummies-poison-clothing.html |first=Mindy |last=Weisberger |title=Dressed to Kill: Chilean Mummies' Clothes Were Colored with Deadly Toxin |website=Live Science|date=27 July 2018 |access-date=26 August 2024}}

• Hepatic cinnabar, or paragite, is an impure brownish variety{{cite web|url=http://www.mindat.org/min-1871.html|title=Hepatic Cinnabar: Hepatic Cinnabar mineral information and data.|work=Mindat}} from the mines of Idrija in the Carniola region of Slovenia, in which the cinnabar is mixed with bituminous and earthy matter.{{cite book|last=Shepard|first=Charles Upham|title=Treatise on Mineralogy|publisher=Hezekiah Howe|date=1832|page=132}}
• Hypercinnabar crystallizes at high temperature in the hexagonal crystal system.{{cite web|url=http://www.mindat.org/min-1994.html|title=Hypercinnabar: Hypercinnabar mineral information and data|work=Mindat}}
• Metacinnabar is a black-colored form of mercury(II) sulfide, which crystallizes in the cubic crystal system.{{cite web|url=http://www.mindat.org/min-2670.html|title=Metacinnabar: Metacinnabar mineral information and data|work=Mindat}}
• Synthetic cinnabar is produced by treatment of mercury(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.{{cite book |last1=Holleman |first1=A. F. |last2=Wiberg |first2=E. | title = Inorganic Chemistry | publisher = Academic Press | location = San Diego, California | year = 2001 | isbn = 0-12-352651-5 }}{{page needed|date=July 2015}}

{{Portal|Earth sciences}}

• Classification of minerals
• List of minerals
• Mercury cycle
• Red pigments

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book|first1=Susan |last1=Stewart |date=2014 |contribution='Gleaming and deadly white': Toxic cosmetics in the Roman world |page=84 |title=History of Toxicology and Environmental Health: Toxicology in Antiquity |volume=II |editor-first=Philip |editor-last=Wexler |location=New York, NY |publisher=Academic Press |isbn=978-0-12-801634-3}}
• {{cite conference|last1=Barone |first1=G. |last2=Di Bella |first2=M. |last3=Mastelloni |first3=M. A. |last4=Mazzoleni |first4=P. |last5=Quartieri |first5=S. |last6=Raneri |first6=S. |last7=Sabatino |first7=G. |last8=Vailati |first8=C. |title=Pottery Production of the Pittore di Lipari: Chemical and Mineralogical Analysis of the Pigments |publisher=2nd European Mineralogical Conference (EMC2016) 11–15 Sep 2016 |conference=Minerals, Fluids and Rocks: Alphabet and Words of Planet Earth |location=Rimini |date=2016 |page=716}}

{{refend}}

{{Commons category|Cinnabar}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070912190757/http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/ME/mercuric_sulphide.html MSDS for cinnabar]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090626042032/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~toxmetal/metals/stories/mercury.html Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Program – Mercury]
• [http://www.galleries.com/minerals/sulfides/cinnabar/cinnabar.htm Cinnabar visual reference]

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• Pompeian Red

Category:Sulfide minerals

Category:Mercury(II) minerals

Category:Trigonal minerals

Category:Blendes

Category:Minerals in space group 152 or 154

Category:Traditional Chinese medicine

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