About Mercury The Geology of Quicksilver

The heavy metal element mercury (Hg) has fascinated humans since ancient times when it was referred to as quicksilver. It is one of only two elements, the other being bromine, that is liquid at standard room temperature. Once the embodiment of magic, mercury is regarded with much more caution today. The Mercury Cycle Mercury is classified as a volatile element, one that lives mostly in the Earths crust. Its geochemical cycle starts with volcanic activity as magma invades sedimentary rocks. Mercury vapors and compounds rise toward the surface, condensing in porous rocks mostly as the sulfide HgS, known as cinnabar.   Hot springs can also concentrate mercury if they have a source of it down below. It was once thought that the Yellowstone geysers were possibly the largest producers of mercury emissions on the planet. Detailed research, however, found that nearby wildfires were emitting far larger amounts of mercury into the atmosphere.   Deposits of mercury, whether in cinnabar or at hot springs, are usually small and rare. The delicate element doesnt last long in any one place; for the most part, it vaporizes into the air and enters the biosphere.   Only a portion of environmental mercury becomes biologically active; the rest just sits there or becomes bound to mineral particles. Various microorganisms deal with mercuric ions by adding or removing methyl ions for their own reasons.  (The methylated mercury is highly poisonous.) The net result is that mercury tends to end up slightly enriched in organic sediments and clay-based rocks like shale. Heat and fracturing release the mercury and start the cycle again. Of course, humans are consuming large amounts of organic sediments in the form of coal. Mercury levels in coal are not high, but we burn so much that energy production is by far the biggest source of mercury pollution. More mercury comes from burning petroleum and natural gas.   As fossil fuel production increased during the Industrial Revolution, so did mercury emissions and subsequent problems. Today, the USGS spends a large amount of time and resources studying its prevalence in and effects on our environment.   Mercury in History and Today Mercury used to be highly regarded, for reasons both mystical and practical. Among the substances we deal with in our lives, mercury is pretty odd and amazing. The Latin name hydrargyrum, from which its chemical symbol Hg comes, means water-silver. English speakers used to call it quicksilver, or living silver. The medieval alchemists felt that mercury must have a mighty mojo, some excess of spirit that could be tamed for their great work of turning base metal into gold. They used to make little toy mazes with a glob of the liquid metal in it. Perhaps Alexander Calder had one as a child and remembered his fascination when he created his wonderful Mercury Fountain in 1937. It honors the Almadà ©n miners for their suffering during the Spanish Civil War and occupies a place of honor at the Fundacià ³n Joan Mirà ³ in Barcelona today. When the fountain was first created, people appreciated the beauty of the free-flowing metal liquid but did not understand its toxicity. Today, it sits behind a protective pane of glass.   As a practical matter, mercury does some very useful things. It dissolves other metals in it to make instant alloys or amalgams. A gold or silver amalgam made with mercury is an excellent material for filling tooth cavities, hardening rapidly and wearing well. (Dental authorities do not consider this a hazard to patients.) It dissolves precious metals found in ores—and then can be distilled almost as easily as alcohol, boiling at only a few hundred degrees, to leave the gold or silver behind. Being extremely dense, mercury is used for making small lab apparatus like blood-pressure gauges or the standard barometer, which would be 10 meters tall, not 0.8 meters, if it used water instead. If only mercury were safer. Considering how potentially hazardous it can be when used in everyday items, though, it just makes sense to use safer alternatives.