Where/How is Mercury Found in Nature?

[Jinx]

Well, the title says it all, pretty much. How is the metal, mercury, found in nature? Being a liquid at room temp, I WAG it is not found as an ore. So what's the SD on quick silver?
- Jinx

[Fear Itself]

The most common form of mercury found in nature is mercury sulfide, also known as cinnabar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnabar).

[Jinx]

Thanks for the info! ...I think I ate one of those cinnabars once! ;)

[Fear Itself]

I think I ate one of those cinnabars once! ;)I can never resist them whenever i go to the mall...

[Xema]

I think I ate one of those cinnabars once! ;)
Ah, Cinnabon (http://www.cinnabon.com/experience/index.html). Delicious - and about as good for you as consuming the same quantity of cinnabar. (I think each one includes something like half a pound of butter and 6000 calories.)

[Precambrianmollusc]

Well, the title says it all, pretty much. How is the metal, mercury, found in nature? Being a liquid at room temp, I WAG it is not found as an ore. So what's the SD on quick silver?
- Jinx

Just to be nitpicky, an ore is generally defined as being a mineral (chemical compound) from which a resource can be extracted. Mercury is found as an ore. The term for finding the metal in its base state (eg gold) would be native metal.

[Gbro]

With all the mercury warnings on fish consumption, one would think a lake bottom would have a fare amount.

[zagloba]

The mercury deposits of Almadén, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almad%C3%A9n) Spain account for the largest quantity of liquid mercury metal produced in the world. Approximately 250,000 metric tons of mercury have been produced there in the past 2,000 years.

The New Almaden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Almaden) mine, near San Jose, California is the oldest and most productive mercury mine in the United States. Mining operations ended in 1976 when Santa Clara County bought the area for use as a park.

[asterion]

With all the mercury warnings on fish consumption, one would think a lake bottom would have a fare amount.
Those are organomercury compounds such as methyl mercury. The mercury is in the fish, not floating around in the water or sitting at the bottom.

[butler1850]

Ah, Cinnabon (http://www.cinnabon.com/experience/index.html). Delicious - and about as good for you as consuming the same quantity of cinnabar. (I think each one includes something like half a pound of butter and 6000 calories.)

<shameless hijack to fight ignorance, please forgive me>

Not quite (http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/52903.html), but they are damn near sinful

</shtfipfm>

Actual question based on the OP:

Why did they want to mine this stuff and convert it to liquid mercury? What were the uses that they felt it was important enough to use it for?

[mks57]

Actual question based on the OP:

Why did they want to mine this stuff and convert it to liquid mercury? What were the uses that they felt it was important enough to use it for?

One use is explosives, like blasting caps and cartridge primers.

[butler1850]

One use is explosives, like blasting caps and cartridge primers.

That addresses modern usage, but what about ancient usage?

[yabob]

<shameless hijack to fight ignorance, please forgive me>

Not quite (http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/item/52903.html), but they are damn near sinful

</shtfipfm>

Actual question based on the OP:

Why did they want to mine this stuff and convert it to liquid mercury? What were the uses that they felt it was important enough to use it for?
LOTS of instrument uses besides thermometers - every thermostat used to contain a mercury switch before they became electronic. Dental amalgams. Gold mining. Batteries. Manufacturing processes such as caustic soda and chlorine. Certain types of paints and pesticides.

[yabob]

Oh, and mercury was used historically to treat felt, of course. The process was banned in 1941. And the Daguerreotype photo process and silvering mirrors. It was used as an anti-syphilitic treatment at one time. The more recent uses in anti-fouling paint and herbicides were banned in the 1990s.

[yabob]

The mercury deposits of Almadén, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almad%C3%A9n) Spain account for the largest quantity of liquid mercury metal produced in the world. Approximately 250,000 metric tons of mercury have been produced there in the past 2,000 years.

The New Almaden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Almaden) mine, near San Jose, California is the oldest and most productive mercury mine in the United States. Mining operations ended in 1976 when Santa Clara County bought the area for use as a park.
It's a nice park, and pretty large, for being right on the edge of San Jose. I've hiked in it a lot, since I can be there in 15 minutes or so. The way the now defunct rotary furnace operated gives one pause, though - you just heat the ground up cinnabar, and you get mercury vapor and sulfur dioxide. The rotary furnace condensed out the mercury vapor and vented the SO2 to the air.

[Una Persson]

I know that Search isn't broken, because I found this in a thread about the same question. (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6448753&postcount=11)
It even has pictures.

[Astroboy14]

Oh, and mercury was used historically to treat felt, of course.

Mad as a hatter...

[Xema]

... Gold mining.
And silver mining. According to this site (http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Elements-Toxic/Mercury-amalgamation.htm) mining accounts for around half of all the mercury ever produced (and the residue may represent a significant problem today).

[Polycarp]

I know that Search isn't broken, because I found this in a thread about the same question. (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6448753&postcount=11)
It even has pictures.

Thanks, lady! I was pretty sure the issue of mercury as naturally occurring native metal had been addressed here before, but lately I'm getting time-outs if I so much as run a Google search, so I didn't want to work the hamsters into a frenzy to verify it.

[ZipperJJ]

It was used as a laxative. Bottoms up!

[Harmonious Discord]

Besides silver it separates out gold.

The lighthouses used a pool of mercury to float the lamp assembly on. This was rotated by clock work using weights that hung in the tower These lamps weighed a lot and mercury was the best way to reduce friction. A lot is what you get when I can't pull up a weight for one of the lamps searching the web.

[Fear Itself]

A lot is what you get when I can't pull up a weight for one of the lamps searching the web.The Kilauea Point Lighthouse (http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=139) on Kauai, Hawaii was built in 1913 with a four-and-a-half ton lamp suspended on a mercury float.

[Harmonious Discord]

The Kilauea Point Lighthouse (http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=139) on Kauai, Hawaii was built in 1913 with a four-and-a-half ton lamp suspended on a mercury float.

Thanks, I thought they weighed tons, but didn't want to say that without an example. By the way that was the weight of the lens and not the whole assembly, so the lamp weighed more.

[Askance]

Where/How is Mercury Found in Nature?Right between the Sun and Venus.

[zagloba]

The bulk of the mercury from New Almaden was used in gold and silver mining, and was critical to the gold rush. The ore in California and in the Virginia City, Nevada area was quartz veined (usually very finely) with native silver and gold. To extract the metals, the ore was first pulverized by stamp mills, which ran 24/7, shaking the earth and disturbing the sleep of all in the vicinity. Then liquid mercury was used to dissolve the metals from the resulting powder. The resulting amalgam of silver, gold and mercury was then heated to drive off the mercury. Recovery of the mercury vapor ranged from ineffective to nonexistent. You can read a bit about this process in Mark Twain's Roughing It, among other places.

[Nava]

Another use for mercury was in jewelry. "Gold" in jewelry is not pure (that wouldn't keep its shape), but an alloy; "white gold" used to include mercury (it doesn't any more), while "red gold" is rich in copper.

[Una Persson]

Another use for mercury was in jewelry. "Gold" in jewelry is not pure (that wouldn't keep its shape), but an alloy; "white gold" used to include mercury (it doesn't any more), while "red gold" is rich in copper.
I haven't heard of any widespread use of mercury in white gold in the past. Mercury is used as an amalgam in silver fillings, but where exactly was it purposefully used in white gold?

[DSYoungEsq]

Thanks for the info! ...I think I ate one of those cinnabars once! ;)
Ok, now I don't feel so bad telling you to look for it about 7 degrees above the horizon in the evening sky right after the sun sets. :D

[Euphonious Polemic]

Ok, now I don't feel so bad telling you to look for it about 7 degrees above the horizon in the evening sky right after the sun sets. :D

I"m looking Askance at post #24