Metacinnabar
Mineral HgS
Take care.
- Contains mercury: Wash your hands after handling it, and never heat it: the fumes are poisonous.
About it
The black, cubic form of mercury sulfide, as dull crusts or small tetrahedral crystals with cinnabar. Found in California's Coast Range mercury mines and other mercury deposits.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Sulfide, sphalerite group
- Formula
- HgS
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 3
- Specific gravity
- 7.6–7.75
- Streak
- black
- Lustre
- metallic, submetallic
- Crystal system
- Isometric (cubic)
- Colours
- greyish black, black
- Transparency
- opaque
- Cleavage and fracture
- none; conchoidal fracture
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.